South travelled to March on Saturday knowing that they faced a very tough match. Their win over March before Christmas was the only points that the league leaders had dropped all season and they had beaten everyone else with depressing ease.

However, South were not overawed and knew that they had a strong team, despite the absence of captain Rachel Moyes and also stalwarts Caroline Bucknall and Tash Cox, who were both recovering from flu.

The match started well with both sides trading attacks. Gemma Thomas made some fine attacking runs and put in several good crosses that the South forwards were just unable to get their sticks on. Meanwhile, the defence was also strong, with sweeper Ruth Jempson and goalie Cassie Woodfin doing plenty of shouting and making some good saves and tackles when called upon.

Twenty minutes in, and slightly against the run of play, South managed to break the deadlock. Right half Liz Tattersall, who had an excellent game, put in a great through pass to free left wing Emma Clarke, who ran on to it and beat the goalkeeper, much to Emma's surprise. March immediately came back strongly but South comfortably held out to half time.

The second half looked like being hard work for South, with March determined to score and making repeated attacks. Some good tackles and strong defence of numerous short corners kept the score at 1-0 until fifteen minutes from the end. A March forward struck a solid shot into the D which smacked straight onto the end of Ruth Jempson's hand. As she yelled and dropped her stick, with a lot of blood immediately evident, all the players of both sides naturally stopped also. Unfortunately the March umpire had other ideas and as he shouted 'play on', a March forward reacted first and pushed the ball into the goal. South were naturally upset, feeling that this was unsportsmanlike play at the very least, even while agreeing that it was not perhaps against the letter of the law.

However, there was a match to finish and after Ruth's wounds were tended to, with no sub available there was a certain amount of reorganization to do. Gemma dropped back to sweeper, with Emma moving to centre half, leaving the mother and daughter combination of Anne Swinney and Rosie Dias up front. In this formation, South managed to hold out until the end of the match, despite March desperately pushing for a winner and another injury scare to left back Sue Snape.

All in all, South had to be pleased with this result, although less happy that several of their players came away with injuries. Everyone in the team worked extremely hard and put together some quality passing moves, coupled with first-rate defending. Special mention must go to Jodee Davis who had an excellent game at centre back, sticking to the March centre forward like glue, and Claire Roberts at right back who made some vital tackles, especially in the last ten minutes when South were down to ten. Jo Read also worked tirelessly at left half and managed to support most of the attacks as well as defending with determination.