It was a late afternoon on an autumnal day when we rocked up to Wilby. Thankfully, unlike last weekend, the clouds graced us with their presence, albeit it was still a bit muggy.

Standing at the pitch side, waiting for the previous match to finish, Katie Cooil whipped out what the chemist had provided as alternative to anti-chaffing cream (those with no thigh gap will understand), nipple cream was handed out as the new barrier cream to save the day. I thank Katie as I apply…. Later I would fully regret the chemists alternative as my thighs have never been so stuck together. Consequently my lemon was Katie. 

We stroll on to the pitch to see new talent amongst the familiar faces of City 3s. The first derby game of the season, could this be the weekend we do it? Could newbies Katie, Annie & Jenny help us secure what we hadn’t the previous seasons, could 3 points be on the table.

South with a shaky start (those pre-match tummies hadn’t settled yet) but the best was yet to come. Finding our stride, we started to play well, providing nice balls up through defence to midfield, linking to the forwards. We were unlucky not to get a goal in the first half hitting the post twice and putting some real pressure on the City defence. City’s leggy forwards also meant that we needed to be stepping in front, making those 50-50 balls which POM Charlotte did ever so well. 
Half time 0-0. 
With the second half underway South possibly/definitely looking like the stronger of the two sides were unlucky to concede a short corner. Loopy making a cracking first save but the rebound came in like a rocket and ended up in net. No! How could this be? Was today not the day we were going to take the 3 points. So, we fought and we fought, playing intense and well constructed hockey we eventually secured  a penalty corner with only minutes to spare. Kim; “Slap it as hard as you can”, saved by a City stick but not far enough away from the grasps of Annie who managed to get the ball over the line - GOAL. 1-1. 

Although we didn’t manage the full 3 points, we’ll take the 1.