The first game back of the new year saw South travelling away to play Huntingdon in the middle of nowhere on a pretty bleak January morning. The starting whistle blew, but then the game was quickly paused for the umpire to perform a costume change due to her clashing outfit choice. Undeterred, South displayed enthusiasm with some great passing around the team to create a strong start to the match. A few chances from the Huntingdon team saw some excellent saves from Laurie (our latest defender giving goalkeeping a go). South remained strong on the attack though and managed to claim the first short corner of the game, with a great strike from Alex at the top of the D unfortunately being saved by the left post. South were battling hard and maintaining possession, surely gearing up to score some goals…

An unfortunate break from Huntingdon enabled the ball to find its way to their striker on the back post, marking the first goal of the match. 1-0 to Huntingdon but there was still plenty of time for South to bring it back. Some great play down the right-hand side of the pitch from El and Nicole resulted in the second short corner of the game being awarded to South, but unfortunately to no avail with another straight strike.

Another fast break from Huntingdon lead to them being awarded a short corner, and an unfortunate foot in the way saw a repeated short corner but this time leading to a conversion, and the half ended at 2-0 to Huntingdon. A team talk from Izzy was surely necessary to remind South how to put the ball in the back of the oppositions net!

In the second half, the game remained quite aggressive with a few balls hitting bodies instead of sticks (it’s not bloomin’ volleyball!). Great skills in the centre of the pitch from Becky D resulted in another attacking short corner for South. But even with a switch in the routine, the scoreline did not increase in South’s favour. The domination of possession remained consistent from South, but the compact Huntingdon defence proved too difficult to break down.

The third and final goal of the match came from Huntingdon, being fired into the D at head height (umpire??) and then into the back of the net. Overall, once again, the scoreline didn’t reflect the possession and domination from South, but Huntingdon were a lot more clinical and able to capitalise on the chances they created.

Onto the next!

LOM – Joint award to Bex for forgetting astro’s (despite not actually slipping over!) and Alex for oversleeping her alarm.

POM – Laurie and Ellie for great work at the back of the pitch.