“It’s going to be great” - the words of our fearless leader Dani. And she was right. After Jenny managed to get her shirt on, South started with the sun (really thought we’d get soaked) behind us. We knew that Kettering (thanks Jan) had a very similar record to us with only 1 goal the difference between us to date, so it was an important match to establish who’s who at the top of the table.

Kettering started strong and most of the play was in the South half – Jess didn’t touch the ball in the first 10 minutes apparently. We absorbed the pressure well with a few key saves from Bryony and eventually we settled into our game. Great attacking play saw Aoife, Rhi and Rebecca linking up well on the right. Sophie was all over getting key interceptions in. Several balls into the D led to decent chances. We won a free hit just outside the D –however, Hayley forgot the “new” rules and went straight into the D earning her lemon honours.

I haven’t even mentioned the switching across the back by Niamh, Jenny, Nic and the wingers - it was just wonderful. At half time it was 0-0 and all to play for. We could feel a breakthrough coming.

We regrouped and had a great spell of possession at the start of the second half – Kettering couldn’t get a touch for several minutes. The ball went up the right, it came back on a switch, it went up the left, it was played into the D, Tiffany had the first shot, but as the ball pinged across the goal Jess was there to calmly complete a move that probably involved every player on the team (except Bryony I guess). It was declared beautiful by Rebecca and I think we can all be proud.

Feline and Charlotte linked up brilliantly on the left, stepping in front of Kettering players to great effect breaking up their attacks. This earned POM votes for Charlotte, but Feline came out top for her forward drives.

After an attack on the Kettering goal (involving the ball getting caught up in the keeper’s pads), Kettering took a quick 16 and South were suddenly facing a break. It all looked sorted as Jenny and Hayley were there, but a hooked back stick missed by the umpire gave Kettering the chance to finish. For the rest of the game South dominated, with 5 penalty corners, but we just could not convert. Credit to the Kettering defence and goal keeper for keeping us out.

We all saw more of Kettering than expected after the directions to teas led to much turning around of cars. I missed the cakes, but I assume they were delicious. A fantastic game of hockey on a sandy pitch that can give us a great deal of confidence going into the next few games.