A home game for Southend and Benfleet 1s this week saw them face off against Brentwood 3s. Having already played and won against Brentwood 2s twice this season S&B were looking to put a dent in their goal difference this week which was started off in the opening minutes of the game as Division 1s top 3rd goal scorer, Kirsty Edmunds, slotted the ball passed the Brentwood goalie and scored S&Bs first goal of the match. S&B dominated the majority of the play and it didn’t take long before Adele Cole gave S&B their second goal. The few attacks Brentwood attempted to mount were shut down by the very calm and calculated defensive tactics Rachael Jeffery and Nina Dabbs who shadowed the Brentwood opponents and waited for the perfect time to tackle. It wasn’t long before Kirsty Edmunds scored her second goal of the game to make the score 3-0 with an impressive reverse stick manoeuvre. S&B were relaxed and confident with their lead which captain Nicola Bryant increased just before half time to 4-0.

The start of the second half hailed the first game of the season for the returning star Naomi Barker who showed off her amazing stick skills and helped S&B continue to pressure the away sides defence. Brentwood perked up slightly and some clever passing saw them in S&Bs defensive D a number of times, but with close marking from all the S&B players, the ball was soon sent sailing out of the danger zone to the midfield, where captain Nicola Bryant and player of the match Adele Cole worked tirelessly to keep the play in the away sides half. Whilst S&B had the bulk of the possession and an abundance of shots at goal, some frenzied defending from the Brentwood goalie meant that it was well into the second half before Caitlin Meredith tapped the ball in from the right post to score S&Bs 5th goal of the game. With about ten minutes remaining Brentwood seemed to gain a second wind and were able to make several attacks on the S&B goal but it proved to be too little too late as the final whistle blew with S&Bs clean slate in-tacked as the final score totalled S&B – 5, Brentwood – 0.