Today the 1’s faced Southend 2’s in the scorching heat of Rochford. The game started and S&B were caught a bit off guard, having to defend hard and conceding an early short corner which was swiftly dealt with by the defence. Within 6 minutes, S&B broke, with Lily Cole charging down the right side and crossing it to Kerry Amos on the back post, who slipped it past the keeper. S&B then began to settle down and play their own game, with lovely passing across the pitch from Kerry and Rachel, with Adele and Chloe picking up balls in the middle. One of these balls Chloe picked up, driving into the D and striking from the top, with the ball lifting into the top of the net. 2-0 at half time.
Second half and S&B were playing into the sun. Within 3 minutes, S&B earned a short corner, going for a variant of Gav’s favourite variant and cleanly struck by Naomi Barker. 6 minutes later, Lily Cole again drove the ball down the right and crossed it to Naomi, who got the rebound off the keeper into the goal. Anna Tutton was providing some great runs and excellent options going forward, almost getting on the score sheet herself a few times. Southend had a few short corners themselves which were kept out by Nina, Charley, Lily King and Carmel was forced to make a couple of great saves. Nearing the end of the match, Southend took a 16 across their goal, which was pounced on by Lily Cole who took a dive to reverse stick sweep it past the keeper. End result was 5-0, which could have been many more had it not been for some fantastic saves from Fran in Southend’s goal.

Players of the Match: The Whole Team!