It was a blustery, cold day in September, and the clocks were striking thirteen. We rocked up to St Neots, most of us late. Bloomin’ diversions!

The first thing to say about this match is that I like having teeth. I’m sure you can all agree. If you don’t, just ask James, M4s’ captain (who is now genuinely terrified of apples, pizza crusts and anything that crunches – but oddly not cricket balls). So when I realised, one minute into the match, that I wasn’t wearing a mouth guard I feel that running off screaming for Laragh to sub with me was a perfectly, proportionate reaction. Noticing thirty seconds later that my mouthguard was in my sock, however, may not have been my finest moment. Never mind. Don’t need teeth to suck on Lemons. Probably deserved. So here we are.

After this rocky start, the first half was pretty even with a lot of play in the midfield. No short corners or goals in the first half but a solid effort from both sides, neither giving an inch. Lydia in goal was Miss Reliable and made some super saves, keeping us in the game. Player of the Match, Sam, made some fantastic runs on the wing and in defence Aoife was working brilliantly on the right to keep the opposition out of our twenty-three.

In the second half, the game really picked up and South looked the stronger team. Lovely triangles, switching and use of the width. At least three short corners were played in which we were horrendously unlucky not to score despite the fantastic efforts from Jess and Rhi who both ended up on the floor on a couple of occasions. (Check out L2s’ Instagram to see Rhi’s very enthusiastic shot – fortunately, all heads remained attached). Centre mid, Lucy, played a great attacking game, distributing well and never giving the ball away cheaply, earning some well-deserved POM votes. As did Jenny and Grace in the back; their switching from side-to-side was looking beautifully slick this week. Unfortunately, St Neots slipped one through the net in the last minute to finish one-nil. Bugger.

Really unlucky for what was a great match played by the L2s. In all, a fun and really friendly match on both sides – I’m sure we’re all looking forward to meeting again at Long Road to even the score! (And look on the bright side of things: we all still have our teeth!)