The purple L4s were nervous when we met in the Long Road mizzle: playing against our much respected and league-leading L3s was going to be tough.  The bad news was that as per Jan’s review, purple defeat was assured  – it was just a question of by how many goals (up to 17 being on the cards!).  However, in better news, a bunch of L4s had met for brunch and developed a strat, and also, the L3s always play good tunes during warm up.  
 
And so, “freed from desire/ your defence is terrifying”, the purples proceeded to play out of their skins, because the pressure was off and we knew that anything better than 0-5 was basically a win.  Whereas, the yellows had everything to prove: “heavy is the head that wears the crown”, so they say.

We concentrated hard on our structure, supported each other, and didn’t let L3 strikers get away from us; we worked the ball around the back, and Zehra gave an Oscar-winning performance of attacking loose balls before stepping over them at the last minute.  At one point Kendra was one on one with the keeper – forcing a fabulous save from Sélène.  I got LOM for my slow 16 resets (what wiggle dance?).  But we were pretty chuffed going into half time 0-0.  
 
We expected a renewed onslaught in H2 and were not disappointed; under sustained pressure we gave away a few short corners, one of which was belted into the absolute bottom right corner, much to yellow collective relief.  However, the final score remained 0-1 and so hopefully we have properly skewed the L3/4 derby stats!  
 
Well done to our three POMs -  Nicole, Molly and Julie - for their excellent composure and passing, with votes also going to Lilly and Shree for their superb runs and work rate.  Onwards!