Maldon – 2
Southend and Benfleet 1s – 3 (Naomi Barker 2, Caitlin Meredith 1)

A warm and sunny November Saturday this week saw Southend and Benfleet 1s travel to face Maldon. Despite Maldon being 7th in the league and only two wins under their belt the home side came out strong and forced S&B onto the back foot for the opening minutes of the game. Some determined defending from Hayley Middleton and Deborah Etheridge kept Maldon at bay and some great work from Adele Cole on the left saw S&B turn the pressure onto the Maldon defence for a time. It wasn’t long though when Maldon came back at S&B and a cracking shot flew up from the far side of the D and into the top corner of S&B’s goal, giving Maldon an early lead. S&B fought back as Ashlie Colman and Naomi Barker wrestled the home side for every ball and would take on the goalie more times than anyone could count, but despite it all S&B weren’t able to level until the final few minutes of the first half saw Jodie Linge start off in the bottom corner, work the ball up through midfield before Naomi Barker capitalised on a rebound from the Maldon goalie to take the score to 1-1 before half time.

Seconds after the restart saw Caitlin Meredith working hand in hand with Kirsty Edmunds up the right wing, with quick passes catching the Maldon ladies off-guard, Meredith was in the home sides D, slotting her first goal of the season behind the experienced Maldon goalie to make the score 2-1 to S&B. Captain Rachel Jeffery stood out in the S&Bs defensive line this week as she snapped up any stray balls coming into S&Bs defensive half and put in many a decisive tackle in to break the Maldon attacks. S&B goalie Lisa Hawkins got plenty of action this week as she saved countless shots, but unfortunately couldn’t prevent Maldon from drawing level after a frantically defended short corner. Nicola Bryant was the rock in centre midfield that trapped the ball deep in the Maldon half for much of the second half, as Colman, Barker and Edmunds all constantly pressured the Maldon defence and their skilled goalie. S&B were cutting it fine, but eventually Barker found the back of the goal to pick up a brace and the winning goal of the game in the last few minutes of the game.

Player of the match was split this week between Barker, Jeffery and Hawkins in an amazing team performance. This hard fought win pushes S&B to second place in the league tables, three points behind Havering who S&B are yet to face.