With a staggering twenty-nine players available for the L5s’ fixture against Ely City 3s this weekend, the lucky squad of fifteen L5s who met at Long Road under the floodlights won the toss and pushed back for the only time in the game. As stand-in captain I had joked about wanting the ‘Goals scored and names in full’ box on the team sheet to be chock-full and, oh boy, the team did not disappoint!

The L5s dominated from the start, with Ely defending hard and Sarah R getting things going with a goal mid-way through the first half. Excellent midfield play from Claudia, Sammy and Liz saw wave after wave of attacks running up the right side, with another goal from Anna C before half time. But it was in the second half that the L5s’ midfield and forwards really ran amok. With Lucy, Emma L and Nicky providing creative recycling of the ball, Ely were pressed back into their own half. Rare incursions towards the L5s’ goal were punished by Rebecca J, Annabel and Hannah P. Serin, needing a bit of a run around, subbed back on in midfield and goals followed in quick succession - banged in by Bex, Anna and Juliette - who carved through the Ely defence like a knife through butter. Final goal tallies were Sarah (1), Bex (1), Juliette (2) and Anna Crucefix - a chunky 4.

To Ely’s great credit they did not give up and made a couple of dangerous breaks in either half, requiring Lou, in goal for her second game of the day (thank you!), to make important saves in order to keep the sheet clean.

All that remained was for those L5s staying for teas to guzzle both home and away pizza orders, an exceptionally delightful problem to have, and a challenge which we rose to admirably.

Player of the Match was shared between Lucy and Juliette, with Rosie picking up LoM for a first-half stick drop.

Nicole, we missed you, and I’m sorry if we messed up the team kit bag, but I hope the scoreline makes up for it!