Our match this weekend was a tough game. We went into it with two previous wins over this team, but knew that at home they would field a stronger line up. We arrived with plenty of time to spare, and sampled the coffee that Stamford had to offer – but minds were soon switched on to the task in hand.

After a good warm up, we were ready to go. Fortunately it wasn’t raining horizontally like last time; the sun even broke through the clouds at the beginning of the match. We started well, with pressure on every ball. However, they managed to score an early goal to take the lead from a short corner. Some dogged defending followed by the back three, with Pip (man of the match) playing a key role as sweeper. Loopy made some fantastic saves, but they managed to force another short, which they converted.

We went into the break 2-0 down, but gathered thoughts (and jelly babies) at half time, and were ready to fight back in the second half. Our tactic was to focus on blocking out their strong players from the game, and with some tighter man to man marking, this was successful in the second half. We were much stronger, and with some fantastic runs from deep up the right by Paula and Vicky, and similarly on the left by Jodee, we were really putting pressure on their defence. Unfortunately we couldn’t quite manage to find the back of the net, in true seconds style! It seemed like we couldn’t score for toffee. However, there was fantastic effort from everybody and some very close chances.

The second half was end to end stuff, and we really started to get slick passing and movement going, with the defence starting the moves, through strong support in midfield with Cat and AI working well together, and with some lovely balls through to the forwards. Out of the blue came another short corner for Rutland, which again they managed to convert. We were facing a tough come back. Heads never went down though and we continued to fight for every ball. Finally the break through came with perhaps the most bizarre goal of the season – it almost happened in slow motion with a free hit outside the D which was duly powered in by AI. Charlie got a touch to deflect towards goal and the Rutland keeper went down but somehow the ball got through her defences and trickled over the line, with everyone looking on almost in disbelief!

Spirits were bolstered and we came at Rutland again strongly, but they proved the better team on the day and a stunning strike from their young left midfield sealed the 4-1 victory. We had some really good passages of play through the match, but just didn’t quite convert our chances. A win for Rutland, but a determined effort from the entire team, which saw us definitely in need of sandwiches and flapjacks by the close of play.