The South Ladies' 1s made their way through the fog to play Market Deeping away this weekend. The match started with a minute or two of startlingly good play from South. So much so that we seemed to shock ourselves into mediocrity - and the Deeping team up a gear - so that the first half was dominated by lots of end-to-end play but little in terms of real chances for either team. South's only goal came about a third way through the first half, when a lovely run by Alice allowed Ellie to move the ball from the defensive sixteen yard line to well past half way, after which calm dribbling by Alice, a well timed pass to Tash and a smart lay-off to Sian resulted in a very classy goal. Towards the end of the first half, Deeping cranked up the pressure on South, passing well through midfield and using their defenders to move the ball around the back, and this pattern continued throughout the match.

The disrupted South team (still missing injured Georgie and with Caroline, Caroline and Kendra all busy elsewhere) struggled to control the midfield and get the ball upfield to somewhat frustrated forwards. As a result, South's defenders had to work hard and keep their cool under sustained pressure on the D and through some rather over-zealous umpiring decisions which lead to short after short being awarded against them.

Deeping's goal came from one of those corners - not the first deflection. which richocheted off the crossbar, but the subsequent lightning rebound finish from their star player, Gemma (we could have done with our own Gemma this week - remember her? - but she appears to find hockey tours in the steamy heat of Singapore preferable to Peterborough in the fog, darn it!)

Overall, this was a game we felt satisfied not to have lost (though still sad not to win) against a team whose position at the bottom of the table reflects the fact that they've had just nine players on the pitch for several matches, rather than playing inherently poor hockey. Numerous great saves lead to Cassie being awarded Man of the Match with all the nominations going to defenders this week. And we're still top of the table!