After a strong win against bottom of the league last week, spirits were high and determination was as strong as ever.

The team assembled at Long Road at 9.45am hoping to get some further inspiration and motivation from the juniors. This fuelled some of our competitive members, as one young boy proclaimed he had scored six goals just that morning…the bar had been set.

Team talk had – to play hard and fast using the wings to our advantage – the match got underway (despite some confusion over which team was to have the pass back…not us, despite our best efforts). The pace was slow as brains gradually began to kick into gear across the pitch. Luckily for South we switched on at a quicker rate than St Neots and within five minutes our attacking trio managed to get the ball in the back of the net!

It was noted at this point that our ever-supportive coach, Bhav, left the side line, obviously content in the knowledge we had this ‘in the bag’ with our ‘excellent hockey’. Our ever-present coach, Izzy, was fortunately still there, making sure the team were aware of all opportunities and using these to our full advantage.

The game continued with much of the play in St Neots’ half and any breaks from them being intercepted by the strong defence of Emma, Zara, Sammy and Ginny – a couple of whose natural position on the pitch was not defence.

A hard and fast ball taken from our twenty-three and transferred to our mids made its way quickly up to the opposition’s D and again resulted in the attacking trio of Emily, Katy and Naomi knocking one in the back of the net!

The half time talk from coach Izzy and guest coach Dave gave straightforward advice – don’t over-think and play like men: use simple zigzag passing up the pitch into the goal. What could be easier?

St Neots were rattled – they wanted a goal, especially after such a spectacular win against our top of the league rivals last weekend. Regardless of a good few attempts at goal where the ball narrowly missed the (football) goal, and with Loopy&rsdquo;s expert goalkeeping, the Saints were unable to get on the scoresheet.

The mids of Liz, Lizzie, Tess and Bethan worked tirelessly, helping out the defence when things got a little close for comfort and creating opportunities for the attackers whenever possible. However today was not to be the day where we were to play as well as the juniors, as we couldn’t quite find the back of the net again.

Nevertheless, a win is a win and even better when coupled with a clean sheet. Long may it continue (well for six games at least)!

For covering every part of the pitch and showing everyone up with insane fitness and interceptions, new mid-come-defender Emma deservedly received many votes to win Man of the Match. Notably Naomi and Lizzie both received votes for cracking runs. Lemon of the Match was given to Ginny for going in for a tackle, tripping her opponent up, losing her stick during this but then continuing to run after the ball before realising that in fact a player without a stick is completely useless near a hockey ball.