The home match against Kettering had been our first of the season and despite a goalless first half, we’d come away with a 5-0 loss. But that was then, and this was now and we knew how much we’d improved since then. This was set to be a much closer, maybe even winnable, game. 
South were dominant in the first half, with lots of time spent around the opposition’s D. A great strike into the D from Katy bounced off several sticks in the D and into the goal. It all happened so fast that it was difficult to see what had happened but it was determined that it hadn’t touched a South stick and a long corner was awarded, no goal :(
A break into our D saw Kettering score a scrappy goal from a short corner. It was frustrating but we knew we were playing better. Cat worked really hard as centre forward but their goalie was, to be fair, amazing and none of our forwards could get it past her despite some excellent attempts. An ominous dark grey sky turned into torrential rain, with everyone being as soaked as if we’d literally gone swimming. We went into halftime 1-0 down, very wet.
The second half was again, very close. Some great tackles from Shree and Hannah kept us level – despite Shree trying to sub on with the wrong stick. Mo had some great runs but unfortunately their keeper just kept thwarting us. In a scrappy near-goal for South by I’m not sure who, the ball hit a defenders foot before rolling (apparently debatably) just over the line. A short was awarded, despite polite challenges, in a frustrating move for South. We’re very grateful to umpires and appreciate that sometimes they make mistakes but this one was particularly bitter to swallow.
Despite Becky having a chunk of her finger taken defending several shorts in a row, Kettering finally scored from a fantastic straight strike. It had been a close and frustrating game, but we’d played really well as a team.
It was hard to choose a PoM, but with 3 votes each for Shree, Hannah and Mo, Katy took it home with 4 votes for excellent linking work and communication as centre midfield.
LoM went unanimously to Avi, who had spilt over our dedicated supporter (genuinely impressive supporting in that weather) Josh’s coffee. His genuine heartbreak and pouty face instantly sealed Avi’s fate as lemon.