Unfortunately, I missed what I have heard was an incredible team talk, featuring inspirational words from Toby (Hayley’s son). The quote was apparently: “Have fun playing with your friends.” And, to be fair, that is exactly what we did.

The first 10 minutes saw some serious energy from the team and some beautiful hockey. After lots of hard work, our first goal came from a short corner. A short pass found Nic on the left, followed by a lovely deflection from Scarlett to put us 1-0 up. We were very clearly dominating the game (despite some questionable beliefs that we didn’t deserve the goal), and I would like to say that we very much proved our point in the second half.

Half time: 1-0. Team talk. Haribos. Squashies. Ready for the second half.

Unfortunately, at the very start of the second half, Nomads scored. However, this was exactly the wake-up call we needed. We won another short corner, the goalie made the save, and then Nic produced my favourite goal of the match: an absolutely incredible tomahawk to the far-right post. As someone standing in the D when this happened, I can only describe watching it as being in slow motion. I am honoured to have witnessed this goal.

Then came another brilliant goal from Indi, with a lovely little tap-in. Being ill clearly cannot stop her skills.

And then, all of a sudden, I decided to wake up. I scored two goals, both involving a rather satisfying amount of dribbling through defenders. I’m not sure what happened, but I’m choosing to take it.

The next goal came from Rachael with another lovely finish, which I can only assume was strategically planned. 

And finally, I managed to add another goal for myself, involving, once again, a little bit more dribbling.

So, after starting the second half 1-1, we deservedly ended up with a 7-1 win against Nomads. I think that fairly conclusively proves that we did, in fact, deserve that first goal.

But whilst the goals were obviously very exciting (especially Nicola’s), I think the most important thing to point out is just how hard every single person in this team worked. Every 50-50 was fought for, every ball was chased down, and everyone put absolutely everything into the game. The scoreline was a pretty good representation of just how hard the whole team worked.

POM went to me, for the hat-trick. I would like to say this was my way of making up for being late.

LOM went to Rachael for her ever-so-slightly messy goal. Beautifully strategic, obviously.
Another LOM went to Jenny for not being able to count to 7.
And finally, HM for LOM went to Coco for her collision with the umpire. For the record, this was not her fault, in my opinion.

Overall, a brilliant game, brilliant team effort and, most importantly, we had fun playing with our friends. Games like this are exactly why we all love the L2s.