Croydon 3′s 3 – Leatherhead 3′s 4
Well here it is coming from the 3rd ‘s Vice Captain.. Melissa (The Bullet) D’Silva.. I am going to try and do my best here but it is my first time so apologies now if I forget to mention anything that might be of importance 
… We played our first league game against Leatherhead Ladies 3’s.. Typically the game started on a shaky note as we lost our Captain due to a “dodgy radiator”…. well that’s what she apparently calls it these days lol. So her trusty side kick had to step up… Anyway I must Thank each and everyone that played today, they not only gave 110% but each and everyone played their hearts out. We were left to play with 10 men (women). Leatherhead opened the scoring… but Croydon soon pulled one back through a short corner.. I received the ball and as I had no idea what I was meant to do with it… I did the one thing I do best.. And hammered the hockey ball towards the goal. Either through some world miracle, godly intervention or flying bird distraction.. The next thing I saw was the ball pass through the keepers legs…and straight to the back of the goal! We really pushed forward and the short passes and the movement around the pitch was fantastic. The Croydon defence was strong, the tackles were fearless and we looked like the better team…scratch that.. We WERE the better team! There was a second fantastic goal by Andrea who I must say a special thank you to as she has recently returned from an injury and played the whole game. As the ball was passed to her, she dribbled through the Leatherhead defence with absolute precision and finesse, finishing the movement perfectly with a well aimed shot into the bottom left corner. Talk about skills! As for the 3rd goal.. unfortunately my memory is vague as it happened so quickly. However, congratulations to Sara for what must have been a wonderful creative floury of the ball into the goal. The half time whistle blew and Croydon were leading 3-1 and looked like we had it in the bag… Second half and we continued to defend but with the shortage of players, the tiredness kicked in and within the last 15 minutes Leatherhead equalised. Although Croydon were determined not to give up, the muscles started to ache and fatigue set in which got the better of us. So Leatherhead managed to sneak in one past Ros (The Boss) who might I add, had a sensational game, I could not have asked for more. Player of the Match was Pat Lulu and it was well deserved! She made some exceptional saves on the line and some important defensive tackles….. All in All Croydon Ladies 3’s had a good game and if we continue the way we played on sat we have a really good chance of doing well this season. Over the next few games, we will have more chances to gel as a team opening many new possibilities for us. This is a great team in the making and we are definitely the ones to watch out for this season… Watch this Space Melissa (The Bullet) D’silva X
Player of the Match: Pat Lulu
Goals: Melissa d’Silva (1), Andrea Vicary (1), Sara Roberts (1)
