The L3s have been going from strength to strength since January with five wins from five games and the squad developing into a cohesive “unit”.  But how would that unit fare with only one member of the back line available and five guest players to assimilate?

Pre-match challenges were set: Juliette wanted a reverse stick goal strike, Anna L didn’t want to be contained down her left line, Esme wanted a reverse flick over an oppo stick, Cassie wanted to shout, Emma wanted to stay upright and Steph wanted to be Tess…

On to the pitch we went, knowing we had a strong set of players, but not knowing whether we would gel quickly enough as a unit to succeed.

The first few minutes felt wobbly – Huntington pressured, attacking again and again, but the wing backs, Anna L on the left (certainly not hemmed in down her line) and Ginny on the right, repelled every attempt with cool, calm tackles and strong passes out of danger.  Louisa was distributing well; Hannah was mopping up anything that broke through to the back and Hannah and Cassie (who succeeded in her shouting challenge) marshalled the new defensive line up.  Concerns abated - this back line had it! –the team could settle down to get on with the work of scoring goals. 

The midfield did a great job of linking the passes out from the defence up to the forwards, with skilful runs from Tabs (who added a bit of cricket fielding to her skills…) and Emma, great passing play from Bethan and strong forward runs by Esme (who may have got her challenge of reverse 3D skills in (?) but certainly showed other fabulous skills on her L3s debut).  The forwards collected from this link play with strong drives into the D.  Our first goal came from Juliette – setting herself up to take a reverse hit from the top of the D – GOAL – and pre-match challenge achieved.  The side went into half time 1-0 up, gaining confidence in the team but with slight nervousness that one mistake could change things.

The second half found the L3s newly constructed team finding its feet (although not literally – lots of players took tumbles here and there, including Emma, unable to complete her pre-match challenge).  The team attacked the Huntington D from all directions, with strong skilful drives in from Indi, Tess and Steph and great D work/positioning from Anna and Juliette.  Four goals followed in this half – another from Juliette: a pass in from Tabs, round a defender and tap in; a pass from Emma followed by a slap in from Tess; and the final two from Steph: a decisive straight strike from a short that she had won from a dangerous run into the D and the second from a ball stolen from the Huntington defence to take her to a one on one with the keeper. 

All in all a superb team performance - where every player, regular L3s and guests, played brilliantly – bringing us three points closer to our promotion goal!  Well done us!