"Total rockstar behaviour - wonderful and chaotic all at once" - Hannah Muncey

An unusually optimistic preview gave us hope against the University 3s team. A wise word of warning made sure we started the game with determination, as they'd put 2 goals away in the opening minutes of their match against South's 2s. And oh yes, it started out high intensity, fast paced and stayed like that the entire game.

Emma put in a stella performance for her first match back after her injury, no more short corners for a while please Emma! Hannah and Lucy our defensive duo on the left worked well together to be as solid as a brick wall, shutting down their nippy attacks and clearing those balls out. Luisa's return after a couple of weeks away was welcomed and her solid defence was also crucial to keeping them out of our D. Lydia had some incredible saves and would not let that ball cross the line. There was a hair raising moment when the ball pinged off the post and back onto the pitch, but luckily hadn't crossed the goal line - as witnessed by Hannah who made that clear to the other team when they started to argue with the umpire. Anne-Marie was a total rockstar in the defence, stepping in to deny those Uni girls chances on goal and stepping up to cover players who spent time on the naughty step (even if she did forget to include herself in the match report - Suz x)

Captain Suzi debuted as a midfielder, shutting down their attacks and distributing the ball well through the middle and up to our inners and forwards. Anna's solid and dependable performance was much needed today and could always be found as an option, distributing the ball well and using enviable skills to get round those players. Rhi worked tirelessly, pinging the ball round the pitch with ease, creating lots of opportunities, interceptions, tackles and triangles. Erin's love of triangles made for some beautiful hockey and Indi did indeed manage to channel her 'inner Erin' as she put it to make some great play up the pitch, and very much annoyed the other team with solid tackles to shut down their attack. Tiff and Erin created lots of opportunities up front and left many a defended stumped as to how they'd managed to get past. In the end it was Tess that netted the first goal of the match, with a great feed in from Rhi. And what a goal it was, one to one with the keeper and Tess expertly slipped it past into the corner.

And so, we finished the first half full of elation but with no illusion that the second half was going to be easy. The Uni team were now even more eager for a goal and stepped up the pressure, however we kept them at bay through their numerous attacks and the whole team really stepped up to keep them out of our half. Whilst our structure might have broken down just a 'little' bit we all pulled through together to make life very difficult for them. Man on man marking seemed to be the most effective tactic, and even our forwards could be found on our defensive D! Short corner after short corner came our way, I managed to shut down some straight strikes with the encouragement of Hannah telling me to sprint out like my life depended on it. The ones that did get through were either picked up by the other defenders or saved by Lydia like an absolute pro.

The umpires also made life a little difficult for us, 4 cards were issued during the match, 2 for Suzi who was  apparently using a little too much elbow whilst channeling, not even sure what happened with Lucy and an accidental ploughing into another player by Anna. We missed them when they were off the pitch as they were all having excellent games, providing solid defence and great dispersal through the middle and up the pitch. However, despite all our efforts it wasn't enough and they managed to slip a goal within the last ten minutes of the match. Special mention to our players of the match Tess and Lydia, Tess for making scoring goals look easy and Lydia for making scoring goals hard!!

Lemon nominations went to Suzi for a 'lovely colour card to match the LOM hat', Anna's reaction 'who me?' for her card, Lucy likewise for being carded, but in the end it was me (Anne-Marie) that got the lemon for sleeping through my alarm

Other POM nominations went to Suzi for great play through the middle, Emma for a smashing first game back and me for defence. Oh, and the whole team got a vote - we rock