Despite a tough run of recent fixtures, the Ladies' 2s arrived at the Long Road pitch in an optimistic mood on Saturday for our match against Huntingdon 1s. As captain Cath told us in her pre-match talk, the next few games are winnable! However, the main aim of the game was to get our very first goal of the season, and with promise of free drinks from Cath for anyone who scored, the whole team looked up for the challenge!

South started well against an experienced and organised Huntingdon side, using some lovely triangular passing moves that had been worked on in training. From one such move, involving four or five players through midfield, Ley found herself in the opponents D with the keeper advancing and closing her down. Keeping calm, she slipped the ball left to Steph who had made a run from the left wing and had the simple task of slapping the ball into the goal! That's right...a goal for South!!!! As the entire team celebrated, Huntingdon looked a little taken aback, as I don't think they had ever seen such excitement over a goal before!

The goal spurred South on and the team were playing with real confidence but unfortunately we were unable to add to our tally before Huntingdon started to come back in to the game. They began putting pressure on and scored a goal from a well taken shot from the top of the D. South then found themselves 2-1 down after a goal from a short corner.

At half time we mainly talked about our goal (!!!) but we also spoke about not diving into tackles and moving more off the ball. The second half was more open and both teams had chances to score. South had been kept in the game due to some great defensive work by Jen and we were doing a good job of counter-attacking, particularly using the pace of Coral and Emma to get the ball out from the back. Another good move late on led to Steph passing the ball through to Ley who had a one-on-one with the keeper, but unfortunately the shot was saved and we couldn't get on to the rebound.

The final whistle went and despite the loss South felt happy with the performance, and of course, our goal!

Here's to more next week!