We were not expecting an easy one against St Ives 1, with them having moved from the league above into the 2s division this season. As expected, St Ives started strong and fast. But a well prepared L2s side held them until unfortunately giving away our first of a few penalty corners.

Our fab team kept them at bay, even getting a few corners of our own, producing the comment “Are they animals?” from the supporters. This had us puzzled as first, but as the game went on a few animalistic traits were emerging:

Carrie leapt like a Gazelle in front of the goal and saved a mid-air goal on the line, which was cleared.
Sophie catching aerials out of the sky, like a Giraffe gently pulling leaves from the trees,
Boo Octopus - hands everywhere; high shots, left and right, no bother! One of her pads found its way in the path of the ball.
Hannah, with her wonderful positive chatter and cheeky Monkey moves to keep those pesky forwards in check.
Jenny thriving like a Bat in the sky, with her wondrous aerials and affinity to the dark.
Hayley Owl for seeing the passes in 360 and being a solid player in the middle,
Molly Starfish for being a star and almost scoring on her L2s debut.
Anna Cheetah for pacey runs, balls and generally being speedy (and for cheating on the 3s…).

A few missed chances in and around the D from both sides, including a beautiful ball in from Jess across the keeper, to a perfectly positioned Molly ready to put into the back of the goal but unfortunately the St Ive’s keeper had other ideas.

After all of that hard work from the team, the first half finished 0-0.

A great half time talk by Ranger Nichola, (who decided to come to St Ives for their hair-washing facilities) kept the team raring to go and herded us out with her expertise.

The second half started with as much feistiness as the first half, but you could tell the efforts of the game were taking its toll on both sides. Suddenly the sideline were watching a safari; and the feral characteristics were being witnessed yet again:

Tiff the Ram, bringing the argy bargy, winning those 50:50s and managing to get away with it.
Cait the sheep with her teamwork and high workrate, but like a sheep raised with dogs, missed a tackle with her stick, decided the next best option was to go in with a football tackle.
Jess the wizard Rhino taking out players left and right, sometimes without even touching them #magic,
Heckling Hyena Laura, always a threat up front, using tactics from the last week on card avoidance with the Umpire (How many feet does it have to hit?! - those pesky spiders…).
Rebecca Dolphin who despite a high intelligence balls through most of the game, decided to turn off one side of her brain and kicking the ball.

…and unfortunately during a blip of concentration, we allowed St Ives the one advantage they needed to slip past the team… 1-0 is how the match ended.

A fantastic effort by all, everyone put in a fantastic shift and Carrie was awarded POM for all her hard work and tenaciousness. Cait got LOM for playing football, but was also recognised for taking herself off for a breather after the fact #selfawarequeen.

A frustrating result, but we hold our head high and feasted on Rebecca's personalised cupcakes to finish.

A special mention for the M5’s for noticing our left property at the clubhouse and bringing it back to the motherland in cambridge!