Saturday has come around quickly! And this week the L3s had the joy of an away game hosted by Newmarket 1s. After playing them twice last season (see Jan’s post for details), the 3s knew this would be a difficult game but after the last few games spirits were high but also tentative. 

The warm up allowed us at get to grips again with the sandy and hard (I know from first hand experience) Newmarket pitch. With Tess’s friend Georgia in goal signalling she was ready, the game began! 

Newmarket came out strong but South held it together with Vicky, Anna and Erin working the ball down the right wing. Some early balls allowed us to push forwards and put pressure on Newmarket’s defence. There was plenty of back and forwards play with Hannah and Suzi picking up balls and clearing them out wide to Lucy who ran her socks off down the wing with support from Rhi and Tiff. Newmarket got the first goal but South came back and Tiff scored a brilliant goal levelling the score line. Half time thought ended 2-1 to Newmarket. 

Sun beaming the second half started, but quickly we were tiring and Newmarkets hits sent the ball straight through of midfield to their forwards hanging high..3-1. Louisa and Indi distributed the ball allowing South to push up with Anne-Marie there to support on the wing. Tess and the forwards worked hard, with a break leading to Erin passing the ball to Anna L on top of the D. One on one with the keeper, the keeper decided to slide out and send Anna flying over her. Short corner awarded but sadly no more goals could be scored. Newmarket were pushing for more goals, putting Georgia under pressure but OMG she was saving goals left right and centre! A shame when two goals did get past to make the score…5-1. 

10 mins to go and the game stopped…a stick to the face, blood and aggression! Thankfully it wasn’t a South players blood but poor Suzi got hit. both sides explained their stories to the umpire, the Newmarket player involved saw yellow for her conduct (she can count herself lucky the Umpire hadn't had a clear view of what she did), and after what felt like the longest few minutes, the last 10 mins of the game would restart with a bully!! In the break Anna W got the teams heads back in the game. We held our own until the final whistle went.