A wet Saturday and no snow this week saw the Sutton ladies 3s heading over to the Bournbrook pitches for everyone’s favourite game of the season, yes, it was BHam Uni away! How delightful! 

We knew the oppo were going to be tough, we knew they were top and flying and we knew they’d only conceded 3 goals all season thus far but there was this quiet determination settling over the changing rooms as the Sutton team listened to the music pounding through the walls and the laughter of those ‘pesky students’.

Coach Mark came in and gave a thorough and precise team talk, everyone knew their roles and the plan of attack was clear in the 3s heads as they headed out to the lovely new blue pitches.

The students rolled out 15 minutes before push back bringing the tunes with them and went through a bit of a warm up - were they not expecting much from Sutton or had a session last night taken it’s toll? - whatever the reason the team in white were somewhat incensed by this and as the push back was taken Sutton stepped up a gear and flew out of the blocks, suddenly the Uni realised they had a game on!

Sutton’s back line held fast as the red of the Uni tried everything in their power to get into the 3s D, it was fast, it was hard yet Sutton gave as good as they got, the defending was solid and there were charging runs down the pitch giving the students a hard time getting back to throw everyone into their D to help defend, the goalkeeper had to come flying out early on to cut out a beautiful cross and she had to stay alert as the team in white battled through time and again.

This up and down battle went on, end to end stuff and any thoughts of an easy game went out of the window. Both keepers were involved and one of the best moves of the game saw Sutton smoothly move the ball from player to player through from the back to end up in a smash in from the right that was unlucky not have ended up in the goal.

There were a few short corners faced by the 3s but the determined 5 on the back line kept them out and for 30 minutes the deadlock couldn’t be broken.

It was from a long corner that the first goal was made, after a long play with some back and forwarding in, out and around the D the students managed to latch onto a rebounded save and smash it into the bottom corner. It was a bit messy but the Uni reacted that split second quicker. 1-0 to the home side.

There were moments to go until the half time whistle when another attack by the Uni saw the defence shepherd the ball out to the left back line, Smurf had come out to cover and there was no angle but in a moment of pure class the attacking student turned, stepped sideways and smashed a hard lifted ball into the far side netting for number two. Wow! What a goal and how on earth did she score from there! Good goal. 

Following an energetic team talk from Mark the 3s came back out refreshed and ready, even being 2-0 down it didn’t seem like an impossible task to get something from this game. Again it was a battle, again it was end to end, there were short corners at both ends and the 3s really were unlucky not to nick one on several occasions - a cross to the back post was narrowly missed, another on a short corner shot went wide and the Uni tackling had to be spot on to get the ball out of their D several times - they were putting 8 or 9 players into the D to try to hold off the 3s before trying to break using their pace to get up the other end.

As the half progressed the team in white started to tire and some loose balls went to the oppo and off the sides but the students weren’t looking too fresh either and it was to be another flash of brilliance that got another goal, the tall number 3 latched on the end of a top D battle with the ball pinging around like a game on an air hockey table, she turned her defender, took the ball right, back to goal, dragged it sideways, stepped over it and on the half turn smashed a shot into the bottom corner, another awesome goal and well worthy of the applause. 

This was how the score remained until the final whistle, the 3s had given everything and had stood toe to toe against a very good team and had walked away with heads held high after a fantastic performance. That horrible feeling after a loss just wasn’t there, the team knew they’d given the students something serious to think about and each and every player deserved a huge pat on the back for the huge effort. Well played Sutton 3s, really hope everyone can walk tomorrow after all that running! 

Back for teas and the all important voting, this week’s MOM went to Naomi for a solid and strong performance. Well done Nay!
The battle of the DOD was down to just one vote, who would take it? Would Subo’s ‘left and right’ issue with her socks win the vote or would Des jump in and nick it, for simply ‘being Des’? The votes were counted and independently verified and the trophy was handed to Des. Well done Des and a good let off for Subo there!