We arrived at Longhirst raring to go for the first match of a double header weekend against 2 challenging opponents – first it was Morpeth, the ‘old school’ team who many of us have played against for a long time. It had been a while since we had last visited Longhirst, and it turned out our first observation was that we had aged significantly better than the pitch – despite it being very carefully raked by the opposition that morning it was a very non bouncy (suited to us) and very muddy and slippery in places (less ideal) pitch! The opposition warned us to be careful in/ avoid the corners – maybe this was a tactic for their defence not to have to cover as much ground……

The first half saw Newcastle dominate early, with some lovely passing and ensuring that we were first to every ball, as coach Becks had ordered us that we must be. We had a lot of pressure on goal against a very strong keeper and defence, but finally a goal came when Cate managed to put the ball into the goal from an almost impossible angle! Shortly after this Morpeth managed to get a quick break and unfortunately very quickly equalised. Heads however didn’t go down and not too long afterwards another goal followed from Bobi - I can’t tell you much about this goal as I was assisting Alice offering her items to help her tweaky hamstring - but I am sure it was excellent!

We went into half time 2-1 up, and after a few positives and more than a few things to work on from Becks (apparently according to Becks this is a compliment to us as it shows we are playing well if she is giving us lots to work on, as if we play badly she is nice to us to try and lift us………) we went out for the 2nd half. The second half brought more hard fought play, but with Newcastle mostly dominating. After missing a pretty much open goal (which probably cemented my DOD win which I had gained during the warmup for realising that most pitches have 2 P Spots in each D, along with my occasional chats to the opposition defenders), I managed to have a shot on target which rebounded out to Jude who was able to finish the job and make it 3-1.

We continued to fight to stop them getting anything back, using our pace, excellent passes and solid tackles, plus occasional headers (Emily), many feet, some more deliberate than others (Helen), and just taking them clean out to the ground (also Helen) – they also helped themselves out with this by wiping themselves out several times in their muddly slippery corners which they warned us so much about.

I had resigned myself to obtaining DOD and therefore having to write this report until, during Becks’ post match team talk all of a sudden Nikki decides it’s time to get changed, pulling down her trousers in the middle of the pitch to reveal her lovely night sky knickers, on being noticed she thought it would be better to turn around and give us all a better view of said knickers! For this she gained joint DOD….. but somehow I am writing the report…. your turn next time Nikki! Great work from Emily for getting MOM for a super strong performance!

One other thing we were told by coach Becks and Captain Jenny at the start of the match was that we must enjoy the match today – and I think it’s safe to say we did! Onto tomorrow against a different type of team…. Durham Uni…..