Blue skies and sunshine were ideal conditions for a girls’ retro road trip to Kettering’s beach-of-a-pitch, complete with ‘80s radio, oranges at half time and ‘picky bits’ for lunch.   In a welcome change from the last game, we had a whopping 16 player squad and deputy coach Thomas running the subs: happy days!  Except for Bex who secured an early lemon due to forgetting her shinpads, being drizzled in toothpaste, and possibly mislaying other items? Who knows.   

Getting underway we knew the game was ‘must-win’, but for the first 15 minutes it felt like the pitch had the better of us: the ball just fizzled out and left us adrift in tackles we would normally win, and on the back foot with passes that didn’t quite reach.  Kettering’s tactic of walloping a long ball through to their forwards had some success, but eventually South slowed ourselves down to sand-pace and managed to work the ball into the Kettering D, securing a short corner.  A clean strong strike by Becky D took South 1-0 up, and earned Becky POM noms: a great goal!   And boy did we need it, because Kettering upped their work rate, winning multiple shorts (no it wasn’t half time yet Naomi – wishful thinking!) and at the stroke of half time South conceded a penalty strike.  However, the well-struck ball was saved fabulously by Keeper Zehra, earning her Player of the Match.  And so, still ahead thanks to ‘that save’, off we went for our oranges, except that Avi had to ask Ruth how to eat a slice first (‘just shove it in and chomp Avi’).   

The second half was not much fun tbh, it was hot, sandy, there were a lot of short corners, both ways, and Zehra and the defence saved many shots as we struggled to both ‘remain 5’ and contain Kettering’s dramatic dribbler…..  Our midfield worked super hard to recycle the ball with Tilly, Bex and El all earning POM noms for their skilled effort, and the forwards pressured, but ultimately the score remained 1-0 to South.  Bravo! And on to the next.