The W3s weren't quite sure how this game was going to play out as Witham are usually a strong opposition and a bit of an unknown. We went in with our usual mentality for the game - lose the toss (it's tradition), work hard, and try and win the game. It seems to be a ritual that works.

Old Loughts started the game strongly and it was clear quite quickly that we were going to have the upper hand in the game with the formation changes that we had made. Molly Gayler was missing from the backs which meant that coach Claire had to make some strategic changes which paid off well, as it turned out.

Believe it or not, and despite dominating the play, we only scored one goal in the first half. This came from Lara Williams in the 17th minute, slotting the ball in at the far post from an assist by Sylvie Simmons. The other eventful part of the first half was Tucker falling over her own feet which made the subs bench laugh out loud (this later earned her the DOD accolade, almost unanimously).

At half time, the team talk was about stretching the play and trying to get in behind the defenders and tiring them out. Witham had no subs so this would play out to our advantage as we were the fitter team too.

In the second half, we came out fired up and determined to score more goals. The forward line from this point onwards was on fire. Keira Keogh and Jemimah Ramchurn made an excellent team with Keira providing the assists for Jemimah to score her first 2 goals of the game at 40 and 50 mins. Sylvie Simmons then followed up with a goal in at the far post at 56 mins after a cross across the box from Anna Dingle. After this Loughts continued to pressurise Witham, with nothing getting through the middle of the pitch as Heather Greaves and Danielle Metcalf ably blocked their path.

More excellent team play from everyone and a quick substitution soon brought Jemimah's 3rd goal to complete her hattrick for the game. And in the final throws of the game, Keira Keogh scored in the 70th minute to make the final score 6-0 to Old Loughts. It was a really good team performance from everyone in the squad.

Woman of the week went to Danielle Metcalf for some awesome play by at the top of diamond.
DOD went to Tucker for her excellent falling skills.
And a special mention goes to goalkeeper, Emily Horsey, for getting her first clean sheet of the season. She did some clever stuff in goal and came up with the goods when it mattered!

We march on to Upminster away next week!