It was a surprisingly sunny and unusually warm November afternoon as we watched the closing moments of our South ladies 6s play to a closely fought 1-0 win.

With morale running high, an incredibly well-stocked bathroom and a pre-match injury that had already made use of the first aid kit, a 15 strong South side stepped out onto the incredibly slow and sunny Ely pitch.

Unfortunately, the coin toss had not gone our way, push back for Ely ladies and Louisa bravely decided we would remain facing the scorching sun for the first half (which she says in retrospect she wouldn’t choose again)!

The first half was a hard-fought battle, with breaks and counter breaks for both teams. The first goal to find its way across our back line was from a scrappy Ely short corner. But the team did not drop their heads and continued fighting through the relentless attack, mostly aimed at KA’s feet and our poor captain too, which seemed to perplex the opposition, “Was that my fault?” she innocently inquired as Louisa tried to shake off the ball to her thigh.

It seemed the bright sunlight was proving tricky for both players and umpires alike, with many ‘advantage play’ given to both teams, leading to a minor telling off to our own vice captain for our let’s call it ‘passionate’ reactions to decisions made.

The second Ely goal came from a persistent back and forth from our ‘super saving’ player of the match, keeper Mia. Unfortunately, the ball bounced up into her pads after what seemed to be a hundred or so shots on goal and as it bounced out again was pushed past our battle hard line of defence and into the back of the net.

Not long after, our captain was on the front line again, being head butted/body slammed and quickly reminded to be more careful, or she’ll be having a card next time!

Although half time brought a 2-0 down scoreline, 5s were ready to fight on, motivated by the insider information from 6s that teas were to be a delicious delight.

The second half started off successfully, with the sun now sharply in our opposition's eyes, South were starting to see more attacks into the opposite D, and at apparently 10 minutes in, we were rewarded with our short corner goal! A bottom left banger by me and I swear I was just on my way to sub!

As the game continued, both Ely and South seemed to be experiencing an unparalleled issue of having sun-swollen, super-sized feet. However, after a fair amount of football, we seemed to be able to remind ourselves to use hockey sticks instead and South felt positive we could perhaps bring this back to a 2-2 draw! Although Avi was vocal in her trust of the line, she was viciously not once but twice swung at from behind and an Ely player was sent off to the naughty step for 2 minutes.

Unfortunately, Ely were not overwhelmed by becoming a player down and continued to fight forwards, testing our defensive back line. There seemed at one point to be a confusion in the middle of the south squad as the mids had no one playing left after a sub! Soon after, Ely were back on the counter attack for a lateish 3rd goal.

Lemon of the matches were given to the sun (who in Rosie’s words I cannot repeat for the child friendly audience), the horrible pitch but the majority went to our vice captain who had chosen a rather fetching, yet perhaps indecent for low tackles short skort. Some of us saw lots more of Harry Lusty than ever before this weekend, giving her the slightly adapted title “peach of the match”.

Player of the match votes went to Daisy for great runs, Nicky for that goal, Harry for super feeding and defending, KA for brilliant drives up the pitch (dancing through the opposition), Louisa for tireless efforts in midfield and to Becky on her South debut. But was ultimately awarded to the star on the goal line Mia!