A frustrating defeat for South today. With a few people missing or injured, a few people were playing out of their preferred optimal positions, adapting well to the situation.

A brilliant performance by Esther won her the player of the match vote by miles – she held on to the ball like there was glue on her stick, and worked her socks off running throughout the game. Charlotte was having a great game in midfield, once again making some brilliant runs and block tackles. Unfortunately her game was cut short by a nasty fall and she hobbled off with a big lump on the knee. Oh dear, and now we have no subs. Georgia had an excellent game, running everywhere in central midfield. We held it a 0-0 for a while, then Peterborough breached our defence as a particularly speedy and skilful player darted past our defenders. Vinnie stepped up and worked hard to focus on marking this player for the rest of the game, and did a great job holding her up. There was solid work at the back by Sarah, Elly and Laura, and some fabulous saves by Selene.

At half time, Fliss dropped back to make use of her pace in midfield, with Louise moving up to the front. Nicky equalised with an awesome goal from a seemingly impossible angle, striking from just in front of the right post and getting it in to the far corner. 1-1 and the game was now much more competitive. So much so that things began to get slightly heated, with a few shoves and stick tackles. It was well handled by the umpires and everyone settled back to just playing hockey.

Sadly Peterborough scored a couple more goals in fairly quick succession – partly due to the fact that with tired legs we were struggling to get everyone back to support on the break as quickly as we should. But South kept going. A period of sustained pressure on Peterborough’s goal saw a few more short corners, and Fliss winning lemon vote for an impressive dive over the goalie. Chris also won a lemon vote for sheltering under an umbrella when it wasn’t actually raining.