A beautiful sunny, Autumnal afternoon was the back drop for our match against Witham 2s in Spinks Lane CM8. After a fraught journey navigating the log jammed  A127  near The Weir, all 12 of the team and coach, Steve Holmes (Stephanie joined us later!) made it for a quick warm up round the pitch perimeter before push back. This season Witham had consolidated 3 teams into 2 and there were definitely some familiar faces in their squad. Our 4s had beat them convincingly but that didn't mean anything and we had no expectations that it was going to be an easy match. Witham started well and made some strong and strategic passes which had them threatening our defence early on. Sam Butt did a good job of disrupting their flow of play on the left and moved the ball forward for Suzie out wide and Chloe in the middle. We had several attempts on goal early on which we couldn't convert and the ball seemed to ebb and flow up and down the pitch. Lilly Withers was playing her debut match for Ladies 5s and made some great tackles after being guided by Steve and really grew in confidence the more she played. Paige Green's signature runs and v drags round the opposition worked really well but the killer strike did not come and the Witham defence were in force. Sarah Jackson, returning to the team fold for her first game of the season following her half marathon jaunt, was making strong inroads on the right and managed to create many sideline passes to us after forcing Witham errors.  Pippa was also playing on the right and  was tackling strongly and putting the training drills into practice  - quote ' I thought I'd try driving round the baseline and crossing into the D'  - Well Pippa, it was a move that Sam and Jerry would have been proud of and Steve was but unfortunately didn't end up in a goal! The first half was evenly matched until the 26th minute when a break by Witham left our defence compromised and even  Sue Sandford couldn't stop the ball crossing the line. Half time was a talk about needing to close the gap we were leaving in the middle of our formation and running onto the ball not waiting for it to be intercepted by Witham. Powered by some vitamin C and Wendy Worms, and now joined by Stephanie Rapp,  we came out for the second half in a determined mood and after 6 minutes a Penalty Corner to OS resulted in a goal scored by Paige. Considering she had come straight from work having started her shift at 6am, she certainly had her eye on the ball! There were no further goals despite a fantastic opportunity towards the end when Stephanie's valiant attempt to beat the keeper, did not hit home.  Of course  a draw is better than a loss and we will take that. Pippa and Sam were voted our Players of the Match and Lilly got to wear (and hopefully will further adorn) the pants after her unfortunate directional error of passing the ball into our D. Not intentional and in all fairness, she did take the ball from Witham before mispassing! However,  disaster was averted by our other defenders so no harm done apart from to her pride. A good game and 1 point to the tally. Next week we face Redbridge & Ilford at home - Go the 5s!