Brentwood 3s – 0
Southend and Benfleet 1s – 12 (Kirsty Edmunds 4, Naomi Barker 3, Hayley Middleton 2, Claire King 2, Jodie Linge 1)

It was goals galore for Southend and Benfleet 1s this week as they stomped Brentwood 3s with an amazing score of 12-0. Brentwood took the first push back and mounted a quick attack but S&B defended easily and countered efficiently, pressuring the home team’s defence until Kirsty Edmunds slotted the ball passed the inexperienced Brentwood goalie giving S&B the first of many goals within the first few minutes of the game. A precision cross found Naomi Barker ready and waiting to tap the ball in on the far post giving S&B a quick second goal. The third goal was claimed by Hayley Middleton with a reversed stick sweep and Edmunds bagged herself another goal shortly after taking the score to 4-0. S&B dominated most of the play as Brentwood rarely even made it into S&B’s defensive quarter; any such attacks were seen off expertly by defensive stars Nina Dabbs and Rachel Jeffery who worked hand in hand with Adele Cole throughout the first half to feed the ball up to keep the pressure on the Brentwood defence. Claire King worked her way through defender after defender and gave S&B a fifth before Edmunds followed with two more goals the taking the score to 7-0 for half time.

In the second half S&B aimed to increase the hefty lead but Brentwood came back with renewed vigour and kept the visitors at bay well into the second half whilst attempting to push up through the S&B ranks with their own attacks; but great communication and marking from captain Nicola Bryant and Middleton meant there was no one for Brentwood to pass to whilst precise tackles from Nicola Coleman won possession for S&B. It took a while but a power strike from Barker blasted its way through the seemingly impenetrable Brentwood defence where it clipped a defenders stick and bagged S&B an eighth goal. King followed with her second goal taking the score to 9-0 with Barker claiming her hat-trick shortly after, as her strike defected of a defenders foot this time and sailed over the goalies head. Brentwood defended well for a time as they trapped the ball in the top corner of the pitch as S&B were awarded long corner after long corner; great teamwork from Caitlin Meredith and captain Bryant ended the stalemate though and allowed for a cross to reach Middleton in front of goal where she grabbed her second goal and took the score to 11-0. In the last moments of the game S&B were awarded a short corner and as the whistle blew before it was taken all of S&B swarmed the Brentwood D, determined to find one last goal, after several shots it was Jodie Linge who found the back of the goal and bagged herself the last goal of the game.

Player of the match was tight this week as everyone managed to claim one or two votes for themselves, in the end the honour was shared between Jodie Linge and Hayley Middleton. The score put a massive dent in the goal difference between S&B and second place Phoenix narrowing it to just 4 points and with an impressive four goals to add to her total, the race for top goal scorer is truly underway for Kirsty Edmunds with only three games left to play! Next week sees the return matches for both S&B teams against the University of Essex.