Another late pushback this week saw Southend and Benfleet 1s travelling to face Waltham Forest 2s on a cold autumn afternoon. S&B were wary of their opposition this week, as Waltham Forest had been playing in the Premier league, the league above division one, last season it was certain that they were going to be a tough team to beat. But after a quick warm up and the first whistle sounded S&B pounced on Waltham Forest and controlled most of the opening play in the home sides half. After several attacks S&B were unable to find the back of the goal, until Kirsty Edmunds nutmegged the keeper and bagged S&B the first goal of the game. The few attacks Waltham Forest attempted to mount were adeptly seen off by captain Nicola Bryant and her amazing reverse stick tackles. Claire King showed off her expert skills as she made her way up the pitch on the left wing whilst being tackled relentlessly; a brilliant strike at goal soon after rewarded her for her hard work with a cracking goal and took the score to 2-0 for half time.

Waltham Forest didn’t give up though and were determined to keep fighting, unfortunately for them though they were constantly denied even a chance at goal by the strong S&B defence with Nicola Coleman’s jab tackles holding the Waltham Forest’s attacks at bay whilst S&B organised their marking. Some fast paced runs up the right wing from Caitlin Meredith coupled with the great positioning and calling from Jodie Linge on long corners and in open play facilitated quick passing into Waltham Forest’s defensive D and created many chances for S&B to strike at goal. It wasn’t long before the constant attacks caused the home team’s defence to falter and several fouls gave S&B plenty of short corners and a penalty flick which was saved off the line by the frantic stick of the Waltham Forest goalie. She soon ran out of luck though as one short corner saw the ball slipped perfectly to Kirsty Edmunds who ricocheted it off the post and into the goal to make it 3-0 to S&B. Waltham Forest came back hard on the restart, looking to snag a consolation goal before full time but tight marking from Hayley Middleton blocked off the home sides options allowing goalie Lisa Hawkins to watch the ball trickle over the back line time and again, keeping the score S&B -3 Waltham Forest -0 at full time.

S&B dominated Waltham Forest and maintained their winning streak for another week allowing them to stay top of the table. Player of the match was awarded to Jodie Linge for her brilliant defending throughout the game and superb positioning on attacks.