The game was hanging in the balance before it even started, as Captain Tess sent out a message on Friday night warning it was set to be a frosty night. Thankfully the weather gods were in our favour as the pitch was frost free on Saturday morning, so we were given the green light for our game.

The day started out with an early morning team videocall courtesy of Steph, much to the everyone’s enjoyment. Despite Hannah’s best efforts to strike up a convo, it was soon ended and off to Long Road we went.

After a quick team talk and a warm up, it was time to get going and chaos quickly set in. The play was evenly spread between a City and somewhat frantic South. There was action at both ends of the pitch, but we had some good moments, linking play between the defence and mid successfully. However, half time ended with a frustrating 0-0.

Coach Tim gave us a firm talking to in the break, encouraging us to stay calm and composed on the ball. Louisa wasn’t too convinced by his tactics, but the rest of us promised to give it a go.

The second half started with a bang, as we scored in the first minute of play thanks to a large whacker from Lucy that went up the line to Amelia, who placed it firmly in the back of the net.

This seemed to ignite something in both City and South, and from that point on tempers were high. There were elbows, sticks and accusations flying everywhere. Indi took a ball to the thigh, Hannah one to the throat, and Ginny, who was enjoying playing with fire, sent some chancers round the back. Despite someone’s best effort to encourage people to stay classy, the situation didn’t improve and City scored an equaliser towards the end of the second half. When the final whistle blew it was level pegging, one goal apiece.

POM this week was joint between Lucy, for her wonder set up and excellent all-round play, and Jess, for her fabulous work as a dream screen. Unfortunately, the team found my words of advice hilarious, so I was awarded LOM.

In spite of all the drama on pitch, it’s onwards and upwards for the L3s and a draw is a good result in what has been a pretty tough season so far.