A good start to the game, with both teams getting stuck in early.

Unfortunately, the umpire’s whistle left a little to be desired. In fact, it sounded suspiciously like a children’s party whistle rather than something designed to control a sporting event! It was so ineffective that half the players couldn’t hear it, leading to a few confused looks, a few delayed reactions, and, inevitably, a few comments from the players.

Still, everyone managed to carry on, despite apparently having to rely on lip-reading and interpretive dance to work out when play had stopped!

A lively start to what promised to be an entertaining game.

A few comments were made about the whistle, and things took an unexpected turn when the opposition captain decided to have a go at our captain, Jill, for absolutely no apparent reason.

Jill, showing admirable restraint, simply smiled, carried on playing and gave her the kind of response that required absolutely no words!

The other umpire then stepped in and reminded their captain that, if she had something to say, she should be speaking to the umpires rather than the opposing captain.

And so, order was restored — although the whistle remained about as useful as a chocolate teapot!

And Jill’s smile clearly did the trick, because moments later we went straight up the other end and scored!

The goal came from Sadie, giving us the perfect response — no arguments, no fuss, just put the ball in the net and let the scoreboard do the talking!

We continued to press hard and spent a lot of time in their half, creating plenty of chances. Unfortunately, their goalkeeper seemed to have other ideas!

Chance after chance came our way, but she pulled off some excellent saves and somehow kept finding ways to stop us. We had plenty of opportunities, but the ball just refused to go in.

Credit where it’s due — their goalkeeper was pretty good!

We kept pressing and eventually got our reward before half-time.

From a short corner, Rachel produced another absolute cracker of a goal — just like she did last week! It was a brilliant finish and put us 2–0 up.

And with that, the half-time whistle finally arrived. Thankfully, this time we could actually hear it!

Half-time: 2–0.
About 15 minutes into the second half, Ollie produced an absolute beauty to make it 3–0!

It was a phenomenal finish — a perfectly struck normal stick shot that found the top right-hand corner, going in behind the goalkeeper before she had any chance of stopping it. What a goal!

We continued to press hard, with most of the game being played in their half. We kept creating chances and putting them under pressure.

Rachel unleashed another big hit, which was saved by the goalkeeper, but the rebound fell nicely for Liv, who was on hand to calmly push it into the back of the net.

4–0!

At this point, the pressure was really starting to tell, and we were firmly in control.
And at the other end, Champs secured her second clean sheet of the season! Two clean sheets already means she’s now eyeing up that Golden Glove — no pressure, Champs!

Our Player of the Match was Sadie Plowright, who thoroughly deserved the award after her goal and all-round performance. And to top it off Sadie also gets the honour of taking Percy home to look after for the week.