Another scorching September day saw the South Ladies 1st team, sponsored by PwC, play their first Premier division league match for many a year (or indeed possibly their first ever). South were taking on a Peterborough 3rds side that they had beaten in a friendly at the end of last season, so hopes were high of a good start to the new campaign. This was further boosted when it was pointed out that Peterborough had only brought 10 players, but given the sterling performance that South put up with 9 players against Newmarket last week, they were taking nothing for granted.

Well, what can I say, there’s not enough room to describe all the goals in detail and to be honest, there were so many that afterwards no-one could really remember what order they were scored in. CF Tash Cox definitely got the first after only 10 minutes, picking up a rebound and putting the ball neatly past the keeper. RW Claire Wylie got into a great position in the ‘D’ for the second, her shout was heard by CH Gemma Thomas who found her with an inch perfect pass that Claire smacked past the on-rushing goalie.

From then on the goals went in regularly. South were 5-0 up at half time, thanks to further goals from LW Emma Clarke, LH Ciara Metcalfe and Claire again.

Meanwhile the rest of the team were doing great work passing the ball around and feeding it through for the many attacks. Unfortunately on-pitch captain Hayley, who had been causing Peterborough plenty of problems in midfield, received a nasty knock to her hand and had to go off. However, South barely broke stride with Liles Dee, sporting two healing black eyes from last week’s match, slotting neatly into the RH position. Hayley contented herself with shouting from the sideline and it was remarked afterwards that she could be heard from all corners of the pitch, which meant that no-one dared to try and take it easy, even when we approached double figures.

After half time it was more of the same. The first attack brought a short corner, courtesy of Claire kindly stopping a ball that came out of defence at shoulder height, with luckily not too much damage done. For once the South corner routine worked perfectly and Gemma’s shot hit the backboard for goal number 6.

Other goals of note included Ciara’s full stretch sweep shot and a great pick up by Julie Sadler at the far post after the ball had ping-ponged between most of the forwards who all managed not to score. In the end the tally was 3 for Ciara and Claire (although Claire did admit to poaching one that was already going in), 2 for Emma and Gemma and 1 each for Tash and Julie.

To their credit, Peterborough never gave up and battled hard all the way through, but the slick passing and one-touch hockey of the whole South team meant that Peterborough could never keep the ball for any sustained length of time. Cassie in goal had only 3 saves to make which she did with great confidence to keep another clean sheet while Louisa, Becca, Jodee and Ellie combined brilliantly in defence and even got the switching round the back working which shows how much confidence the team were playing with!

Special mention must go to man of the match Ciara, who had a storming game in midfield including her hat trick, and dufus of the day, umpire Rob Garrett for locking his keys in the boot of his car. Nice one Rob – thanks for umpiring though – much appreciated!

So a 12-0 win to kick off the league campaign – what a fantastic start to the season - our goal difference is through the roof and we are top of the table until next Saturday at least!