V is for Victory. V is for Vindicated. V is before W and W is for win (and also a ‘weally’ long journey and that is how it all began and ended. & somewhere in between we came home with a 4-1 win and that made it all worthwhile). & re the game, a great team performance evidenced by the spread of POM votes and the 22 tired legs at the post-match tea. Much more linking up and small passes, less panicking on the ball, some wonderful play out from the back into space for our midfield and forwards to run onto.

H1 saw 2 goals, the first concluding with three passes, Hattie to Fi, Fi out to me on the right wing and then … almost a Monday training banana jog… before the ball came back to Nicky centre D, who unfalteringly smashed it into goal. The second was a mele of South passes before eventually finding my stick, from which it trickled over the line. We took it, a goal is a goal.

Half time saw the score 2-0 and as Maddie said in our team huddle, Spalding will come out hard at us. True to form, a run from a Fens whippet not even a third my age, found the D and then the goal. The opposition’s fans were getting ready for a Sweet Carolina comeback, but we were calm, we hadn’t travelled all this way to let them back in. Not long after their goal, a penalty corner in our favour saw a ‘Polly to Nicky-back-to-Polly’ routine which bore fruit in the form of a great third goal for South.

The fourth goal followed a period of great inter-linking and team passing, driving the ball out wide and down the right into our attacking third before Fi struck a hard ball cross through the gap in the crowd, straight to me in the middle of D and …for once, I didn’t mess it up, we had our fourth.

To sum it up - everyone contributed, from Elly in goal, our dynamite defenders Laura, Maddie and Vicki, supremo screeners Nicole and Tilly, midfield magnificoes Polly and Fi and forward fanatics Hattie, Nicky and myself.

POM went to Tilly for great defensive work and all-round contribution to the game. There were others in the run for it, Maddie for her defensive play and passing, Hattie for her great energy and positioning, Nicole for her screening (& Tilly too on that front), Nicky for her shots on goal and even my efforts got a mention.

LOM was never in doubt, it’s the norm when you take a junior out… (although whatever happened to treating the elderly with care?) I was a little hopeful, LOM might go Elly’s way for her pre match sleep on a bench, but she gets us to the game, sorts us all out, and even goes in goal for us when we don’t have a keeper, we think that makes her a bit of a star.

& to finish on a message, we had a team confab on this… a trip away to Spalding is not the same as a holiday break to Australia, even if the teas are quite good.

Well done, Team! We had a great result, and it was real pleasure to be a part of it.