___Southampton Ladies 2nd’s 8 – Gloucester Ladies 2nd’s 4___

After arriving fashionably late to Gloucester after some navigational issues and questionable right turns we were ready to kick some butt. Despite the late arrival we had a quick warm up, pep talk and were into the game.

In the first quarter, I was under the impression that Gloucester were a nicer, less grabby team then those we have previously played. It was shortly into the second quarter I realised how wrong this perception was. They were defending in an effective hard press and keeping our arc too wide for us to pass efficiently. We fought back their defence with swimming twists and attentions tactics. For one girl this was not enough and she required a good telling off from Amy after her hands on approach to defending Catherine. Proof that ‘when you got your pals, you got all you need’- Disney quote, obviously (correctly cited).

The first half ended with Gloucester in the lead 3-2, with goals by Joana and Sofia. Despite their lead in the first half and these fighting antics we caught up brilliantly in the last two quarters. Goals scored due to Beth’s resilience vs Gloucester goalie, Joana’s keeping up her goal streak, a strong shot by Lighty and Alex’s and Lianes pit performance. This ended the game 8-4 to Southampton (although some would say 9-4 is more accurate, but felt no need to pick at Gloucester’s wound).

Unfortunately we did not get the opportunity to make use of the spa facilities at the Gloucester pool, which we had done in previous years and made our way home promptly. With Sat-nav Saf thankfully navigating we weaved through some country lanes and home safely, dropping some players to a well-deserved McDonalds.

Scorers

Joana -3

Beth- 1

Alex -1

Sofia -1

Katie Lightowler -1

Liane Brodie -1

Majors

Sofia-1