So for the 4th time this season, it was southampton uni ladies VS Hayling Utd

After a pitch change late saturday night, the venue was a very torn up pitch at fleming park eastleigh.

SULFC welcomed back a few faces, with Dani back into centre midfiled after recovering from a bout of sickness and a mass of university work. We also welcomed back our 2nd highest goalscorer em mitch to the right wing and our 3rd highest goalscoerer and captain zoe to the left wing. With these returns there were some very key players out due to illness or holiday. None more so than scotty and sophie in centre midfield and our very own john terry ( sarah payne ) who thought it would be good to bugger off to spain.

Anyway, a make shift SULFC lined up and the Ref blew for the start f the 1st half. It was hayling who looked the better team to start with and in all honesty, they looked the better team for the 1st 35 minutes of the 1st half. with strong attacks on our goal and using there height advantage to win the ball in the air. Hayling found their feet on the pitch alot quicker than SULFC and a very red faced manager was on the sidelines for SULFC screaming and shouting for them to get it together and to get the ball on the floor.

After a few screams and shouts from the sidelines, SULFC managed to get the ball on the floor and a nice ball out wide to a returning em saw her dart forward,take it around the hayling left back and drill her shot low and hard to the keepers right hand side.. 1-0 SULFC , but in all fairness it should of been hayling taking the lead.

The game carried on in a very un-kindly way from both teams, hard tackles and late challenges from both sides, made this game very hard on the eyes, it was a typical sunday league game, NOT someting i coach SULFC to play like. lots of long passing and just a big kick up pitch was all that was on offer today, not the normall SULFC we are used to seeing.

HALF- TIME

SULFC........1 ......... Hayling Utd .........0


SULFC may have been 1-0 up at the break, but the manager was far from happy with how things were going. Hayling were all over is in the 1st half, but never took the chances, it just so happened that we took our chance and got a goal. So some harsh words and a " sort your life out " chat was had at half time.

The 2nd half kicked off with SULFC getting a grip of the game now, the ball was more on the floor and was being played into feet so we could move alot better. a few half chances for both teams in the 1st 15 minutes of the 1st half came to nothing.

The 2nd goal of the game was for SULFC again, and it was a communication mix up at the back for hayling. a cross from zoe was going nowhere and the hayling centre back left the ball for the keeper to claim just on the edge of her 18 yard box, HOWEVER she did not see the run from the right wing of Em, she ran around the hayling defender,stole the ball from under the keepers nose and sloted the ball into an empty hayling goal.. 2-0 SULFC.

Still not out of it yet, hayling pilled on the pressure, and soon broke clear of both SULFC centre backs,but a recovery run from huggy saw her put in a tackle that stopped the hayling striker from pulling the trigger. In doing so poor huggy injured herself and was replaced by Helen. After bringing huggy off, her word to the manager was " well i may be injured, but at least i stopped them scoring " ..... now thats commitment.

After a long 20 minutes of back and forth kicking from both teams, SULFC SOMEHOW gave away a penalty. now i was watching the whole game, and i saw no reason why hayling were given the penalty. However it was the Ref's choice and i went along with it. A hard shot to daisys left saw the ball in the back of the net. daisy had a hand to it, but the power of the shoot beat her... SULFC ... 2 .... Hayling Utd 1

Now hayling were really wanting something out of this game, but a change in formation saw us play a 4-1-4-1 and close the game out. We actully finished the game with 10 players as zoe was taken out by haylings keeper on the 88th minute.

Well, a very rough game with some very bad tackles going in saw SULFC come away with the 3 points. in my eyes hayling deserved a draw from this match, but thats football i guess.

A massive well done to hayling and we wish you well for the rest of the season.

SULFC now travel to New Forest on sunday, and another 3 points there, and IF basingstoke can beat Andover New Street will see us go top of the league.

This is the business part of the season now, and any small slip up or mistake could cost us the league. 5 games left and its all to play for.