After one of our longer away journeys to Kettering for an anticipated relegation battle, the good vibes and rousing speech from our captain in the remote outhouse (AKA the away changing rooms) rallied us all for a Ladies 3s stormer of a game. The changing room excitement was only interrupted by Grace (me) beginning her lemon behaviour by completely forgetting to dress in lemon yellow and then nearly bursting out of borrowed hockey socks due to her abnormally 'big strong calves'.
 
During our usual warm up shenanigans the first challenge emerged, not the usual opposition team but the distinct threat of bird flu from a particular 'muddy' patch of grass we had all smooshed into our Astros. While the heat and the anticipation rose for the match, we walked across the beach-esc pitch with high spirits. Yet, these were somewhat dampened by the less-than-kind remarks from the visiting away team on before us, quoting 'questionable on-field decisions during their match. If you like a good story, we could say this was a bit of foreshadowing.
 
The game began under an unusual bit of March sun, with some great attacking despite the heat from the start. With some cracking runs upfront from Steph and Mo, and a fantastic aerial from Libby (though may have been a lifted shot but we will take the 3D skill as a win) that nearly led to a goal, we didn't have any luck in the first half. Unfortunately, even with our lovely Coco making some great pivots and interceptions in the middle, we went down a goal but still pushed strong. I may have mentioned foreshadowing of unlucky on field decision? I won't focus on it. But let's say we were very unlucky when we touched the ball.
 
As it often goes for the L3s this season, despite some cracking defending and a great shift of running by everyone the game ended in an unfortunate loss. So hey ho, they may have taken our 3 points but we were a team united in defeat. And what’s defeat without a fabulous post-game gathering? Our mini-victory for the day was the great post-game vibes filled with birthday buns, singing, and candles, because who doesn’t want to celebrate with cake after a hockey match?
 
A well deserved POM goes to Coco for her fantastic midfielding, and a pretty unanimous and well deserved LOM went to Grace (hello, me again who also lost and found two water bottles during the day) for a series of blunders, and now for probably writing the latest match report yet. Onto next week we go for the last of the season!