A game of mixed emotions. It was heart-breaking enough watching our half-time lead slip away to a 1-2 from the side-line, so doubly cruel for the players on the pitch. At the same time, though, we can be proud of the way we played, which was amazing - especially in the first half, before tiredness in the second forced the occasional error.

From the get-go, we defended, and attacked, with speed and a great sense of purpose, slightly catching Maldon off their guard I think, given they had beaten us convincingly the first time around. There were some lovely linking passages of play, quite a lot down our left flank. One set of team moves ended with a splendid run by Grace into the Maldon D, which she finished off with a lovely reverse stick shot around the keeper.

The game remained fast and exciting right up to the half-time break.

Feeling we had slightly had the edge so far, we went into the second half confident (though not complacent) of a win.

We had seen the odd long aerial ball used by one of the Maldon defenders in the first half and Claire sensibly suggested we move the press back a bit if necessary. In the second half, Maldon used the aerial ball at pretty much every 16 yard hit out, which caused us a major headache, since these went over the heads of even our dropped press. This, combined with a little fatigue coming in here and there, and some excellent blocking by the oppo, slightly tipped the balance in Maldon's favour.

We still managed some wonderful team play, across the whole pitch, but especially down the right flank between Alice and Kayuki.

Maldon scored an early goal in the second half, and the score sat at 1 - 1 for quite a time. Eventually, though, their persistence, and the odd bit of luck led to another two slipping into our goal. All their goals were from free play. We did nearly manage a second goal from a short corner (can't quite remember if in first or second half) when a bullet strike from Anna only missed the target by a whisker.

Alice won our MoM for her speed and general excellence at right mid. DoD went to Kayuki for picking up a card (but she also played amazingly well.)

So, sad that we couldn't hold onto our lead, but a whole load of pride in how well we played. Amazing stuff ladies!
Jane