For the final friendly before the league season finally kick-starts the Ladies’ 2s had a (very long!) trek all the way to the west side of Cambridge to face off a fellow East Div 3 team, Nomads 1s. A scorching day made the conditions difficult but despite this the team battled hard in front of coach Paul Visagie (at pitch-side throughout the game) to come away with a win.

With a friendly pushback, South put pressure on Nomads from the very beginning, keeping the ball in Nomads’ half for the start of the game. Both teams settled into the game and it was not long before the first goal was scored by Dani Arnold - rather a messy goal but a strong push into the goal after the Nomads goalkeeper rolled off the ball and this saw South one-nil up. South continued to press Nomads and it was not long until Jess Foord scored, sweeping the ball strongly into the corner of the goal past the goalkeeper after a lovely injection from I-cannot-remember-who. South came together at half time two-nil up.

The second half saw South come together better – looking to pass the ball early, use the space and remain strong on the ball. Dani Arnold scored her second with a lovely reverse flick across the goal and into the corner, and Jess Foord scored her second too - a reverse stick hit round the back of the goalie after the umpire played advantage following a stick tackle on Jess on the base line in the D. Rhiannon Davies finished the second half off with the fifth goal of the match (and her first goal of this season for the L2s) sweeping the ball strong, hard and clean into the goal.

Player of the Match votes:

• Grace - For being her normal brilliant self and being so solid and reliable at the back. Everyone can rest easy on the pitch knowing she’s behind us to cover us all!
• Lauren - Persistent in the sweeper role and always getting stuck in. Involved in creating lots of chances and defended like a dream.
• Lucy - Always putting 100% effort into wining the ball back and creating opportunities with some beautiful balls injected into the D.
• Dani - Ready to receive all the balls fired up the pitch and for scoring two lovely goals.

Player of the match however goes to Rhi for a solid performance throughout the whole game, constantly creating attacking opportunities by distributing the ball, and a brilliant and well deserved goal!

Lemon of the Match votes: As a shock to everyone, Sam was unanimously voted Lemon for leaving her stick at the pitch and driving off home. And to think she thought her time of getting Lemon was over. How wrong she was.

An all-round good team performance to set us up nicely for our first league game and a solid clean sheet so far for this season’s captains. Let’s hope we can continue this into the season next week!

Well done to the opposition, Nomads, for hosting and who battled relentlessly and never let their heads drop.