We turned up at LR delighted to find Captain Kim waiting to manage the sideline and inspire us to pull off an upset against top of the league. The question in the minds of all - are we fit enough to half-court press the whole match? However with Kim needing to shoot off we had to make do with being inspired by Captain Izzy instead (she inspires me every day). With nothing to lose we started positively - strong accurate passing all over the pitch, Jenny Anna and Annie distributing calmly from the back, Katie Soph and Jess battling hard in the middle, and Saz Laura Izzy and Lucia making great runs, linking up and driving hard at the Bury defence. Unfortunately while we were busy doing all that Bury scored 3 quick goals. We managed to pull one back just before half time via a short corner that went perfectly to plan. Alice tops her shot completely which bounces over several sticks, then smashed in by Lucia on the post.

The second half was a far more even contest, we had multiple chances to bring the score to 3-2 but sadly just couldn’t convert. In true L1s style we had our 10 minutes of chaos (always enjoyable) - identity of the missing right-back still unknown, and two green cards shown to Bury players for consistent stick tackling breaking down our play. With the game opening up, Lydia pulled off several fantastic saves to keep us in with a chance. Bury’s final goal came in the last minute of the match after a hospital pass from Kate. She remembers the incident differently.

MOM went to Lucia for being probably at least x6 faster and more skilful than anyone else on the pitch, Alice LOM for being pushed over by a child and politely enquiring as to what she was doing. MOM votes also went to Jenny (didn’t hear the reason as I had a spa day to get to but will take a good guess it was for being ‘solid’). Although at one point usually Solid Jenny threw stereotypes to the wind and decided to beat 5 players, so we may need a new adjective. Tamsin also had a fantastic game, calmly winning the ball and setting up many of our counterattacks. Other strong LOM contender was Kate, for disagreeing with umpires on precisely where the sideline should be taken from and being quite grumpy all day. All in all it was an enjoyable game and Bury showed why they’re deservedly being promoted to Prem (just like us next year).