After getting very wet moving the goals in the rain this morning, the sun came out for the 10 am Ladies 3’s game v Gosport Borough 1’s. The warmup involved admiring a kestrel perched on the pitch netting and it proved to be a very good omen.

Gosport had some very fast and confident carries in the first phases of the game and Salisbury needed to settle their nerves and slow them down. Once Salisbury started to value possession there were some promising counter attacks from the home team resulting in a neat finish from Gabby Placidi. However soon after a solo dribble from Gosport resulted in an equaliser. Then another counterattack from Salisbury saw Tanith Jones deflecting a cross field pass in on the far post.

Sensible words from Hamish Cameron at half time and a conscious effort to block the centre of the pitch to snuff out attacks saw the 3s play the second half with great confidence. Within one minute of the second half Lisa "Lockett" Lovatt had found the goal - then fluent team passing created more chances and before long Lockett had a hattrick , Sophie Trowbridge had created opportunities and scored two of her own and Gabby finished off the goal scoring masterclass. Final score 8-1 and a lovely way to start everyone’s weekend. There was also some stalwart defensive efforts from Tee Ellis in goal and Nats Cameron and Jo Halsey at the back. Unsurprisingly player of the match votes were spread and a five-way split between slide rule passing Ottilie Knight , hattrick Lockett, hardworking forward Gabby and link up players Lyndz Smith and Miranda MacTaggart. Bring on the league leaders next weekend.