When Sunday night comes by and you wonder why no one has sent you a match report to upload, only to find you conveniently forgot you got lemon and should have been writing it yourself. So here goes Mondays lunch break, excuse my forgetfulness.

The team arrived at Wilberforce Road to glorious autumn weather. The 2s, despite low numbers and some half healed injuries, were eager to play. The game started strong, but sadly not for South. 10 minutes in and Uni had somehow passed our defence and scored twice. They did know how to pass around us and we weren’t quite ready (we’ve learnt we need to step up our warm up to include some sprints or something to wake up, music alone did not do the trick).

We did not however let the 0:2 kill our motivation, we closed the gaps and supported each other fabulously! We got closer and closer to their D and kept the pressure up! Our attacks were led all the way from the back, with Feline and Hannah M pushing hard up the lines and passing back and forth with our wonderful mids - Rebecca, Sophie, and Cait, who were leading the balls into the D. Our forwards were being woman-marked very tightly but managed to evade their defenders and score twice in a row. These goals are a bit blurry (might be the contact lenses that need adjusting) but there was definitely some wonderful passing and stepping in front of players. One goal was (excuse me if I’m wrong) a pass from Jenny to Rebecca who was just outside the D and put a wonderful straight strike in, where Jess gave it a shot past the goalie and Juliette brought it in for that final push over the line. At teas there was some dispute about whether or not Juliette touched the ball, but a coin flip decided she had! The captain does not really care who scored as it was a beautiful team effort but knows Jan cares for the stats and all that! [Ed - plus the need to put goalscorers names on the official teamsheets]

The other goal has completely left the match reporters memory but be assured it was a great one by Maddy! Happy to edit this if someone with a better hockey memory (Jess) knows the details!

Half-time came and it was 2:2 with South definitely finding into the game and getting better by the minute.

The second half saw Uni putting renewed pressure on our defenders with Boo having to do some great saves and the occasional sit on the ball to stop them from scoring. It worked as the following short was defended. Boo made a great save that went straight into Jenny’s face, usual reminder to wear a face mask for shorts!

Play continued with both sides upping their game. Niamh was holding the middle strongly despite an injury flareup meaning she was in a lot of pain (well done mate, sorry we didn’t have a defensive sub to give you a break). Jenny was trying so hard to keep up with the opposition she threw her stick after her (not on purpose but still lemon worthy). Emma was doing her usual thing of giving options everywhere and holding the centre, getting the ball into the opposition D. There were some very near misses, Juliette (?) dragged the ball just past the post in one of them. Jess put some great pressure onto their defenders and snatched the ball away from them during their 16s. Hannah and Maddy were all over the D, trying very hard to get past their defenders, we were very unlucky not to score a couple more times.

Sadly with only 10 minutes to go the ball found the back of the wrong goal and we ended up losing a game that should have given us at least one point. We can take from the game that we never give up and we are really starting to look like a team that’s used to playing together!

PoM votes went to Jess for her amazing pressure on the defence, to Hannah M for showing us all how channeling and double tackling should be done, to Juliette for being super speedy, and to Emma for her high work rate in the middle. The majority however went to our wonderful Feline, who played a spectacular game, giving clear instructions and constantly running the length of the pitch without a break. Super excited for your next chapter and to see you grow on the side-line.

The PoM votes show how much of a team effort this game was. We will take the disappointment as motivation to beat them the next time we see them!

LoM went to Jenny for throwing her stick, despite Hannah S deciding to tie her shoelaces instead of supporting up front.