New Names, New Managers and New Shiny kit

New season and new faces. The first XI squad welcomed Bethan Merriman back from the blue and gold of Stourport and Eloise Ballard a full newbie from down south. And we have a new manager on the scene in Ann Fairbrother, who’s already settled in perfectly.

But before we get carried away, we’ve got to give the people what they want and bring back Fairbrothers fun fact. Which Olympics did each country that entered bring both female and male athletes?

Facing up against newly relegated Buckingham, Sutton were looking forward to the test off the back of a strong pre-season.
With everyone rocking the new kit, minus a slight skort mishap, the mighty pinks were showing off their tans a great new feature of the bright pink. New team photo snapped, warm up flying and Finners loving her deck chair set up, we were off.

Other than a rocky first five minutes, Sutton held their nerve and rose to the occasion. A shut out defensive performance controlled by the magnificent Manning-Moore partnership, saw Buckingham start to make mistakes. The first opportunity came when BP stole the ball high up the pitch to get a shot off and the long corner fire from Manning missed a deflective touch by millimetres.

Midfield mastery from Sue, Vicky, Flo and McCabe limited any of Buckingham’s chances and those they did have they fumbled. Prime examples being all of their penalty corner chances either being snuffed by themselves or a killer Batsford save.

Nil all at halftime Sutton could feel opportunity brewing. Buckingham continued to stumble firing passes off the sidelines endlessly and their frustration showed… Mainly at Freya's nose and Beth's ribs.

Mollie continued to outpace everyone around her creating chances and linking up well with the two newbies. Freya put in a shift hounding the away team defence. Eli Thomas solidified her return to the team with killer passes and hard hitting tackles. EP floated line balls and Nicky Dean drove hard down the right, before being snipered.

Sutton looked threatening, as opposed to Bucks who were just threatening… don’t believe me ask Freya or Gaynor Moore who was witness to some horrible language on the sideline. Gaynor we can only apologise on their behalf.

However, it was Buckingham who finally broke the deadlock after they were able to get each element of their corner routine right. Frustrating, but it only ramped up the intensity even more from the mighty pinks.

With multiple chances missing by the slightest of margins and Buckingham using their Premier league nouse to wind down the clock, Sutton were unable to draw the game.

Player of the Match went to captain fantastic Susan and DOD to Nicky Dean’s bum bruise. The answer to Fairbrothers fun fact is London 2012.
Next week the team travels to Leicester for another battle. Hoping to settle some scores from last season…