St Albans 2^nd X1 (1) - (1) Sudbury Ladies 1^st X1

Sudbury made the trek down to St Albans this weekend knowing a tough game was ahead of them. St Albans 2nd X1 were placed 3rd in the table and Sudbury were looking to leave with all 3 points

The late start meant Sudbury were eager to get going, dominating the first 15 mins with superior play but unfortunately unable to convert. With questionable umpiring decisions, Sudbury let their umpire disagreements get in the way of their play. Tempers were flying which resulted in Sudbury being on the receiving end of a yellow card. Sudbury down to 9 men for the foreseeable 5 minutes needed to contain there aggression and channel it into the game in hand and work especially hard not to let St Albans capitalise on their extra man advantage

After both teams holding 0-0 it was St Albans who opened up the score sheet pressurising the Sudbury defence, earning themselves a short corner. The straight strike tactic came into play from the home side, forcing keeper Sandra to make two fantastic consecutive saves denying St Albans the goal the sought after, unfortunately, St Albans put the 3rd rebound into the back left corner leaving the visitors 1-0 down. Sudbury knew they had to not let their heads drop and come back harder to equalise the score board. It was top scorer Jess Shepherdson who once again scored after from fantastic build up from Emma Stephens and Verity Farr on the right hand side of the park, the ball was slipped to Shepherdson and she was left not to disappoint, slotting it through the keepers legs to level the score 1-1.

Sudbury went into the break frustrated with the lack of umpire support, worst of all they had let the umpiring affect their play. With an inspirational half time talk from Coach Colin, Sudbury decided not to let the officials decisions change the way they needed to play to dominate and take all 3 points.

Sudbury pushed back the half keeping to their new 'keep quite' ethos. With some good linking play, Sudbury won numerous opportunities and a few short corners but were unable to convert. With both sides looking pretty equal both keepers were tested with the score staying the same, one goal apiece.

Half way through the second half, the home side were awarded a penalty stroke. Keeper Mackey's objective 'my goal is to deny yours' rang true as yet again she pulled off another fantastic save to keep the scores level. During the final 10 minutes of the game, Sudbury let their mouths get the best of them causing friction between them and the umpires which lead to two players being sent off. One red and one yellow card meant the visitors were down to 9 men for the remainder of the game. Sudbury had to work extra hard to keep the score at 1-1.

At the end of play on Saturday, Sudbury sit 3rd in the table, with one game in hand of the two teams above them. Next week Sudbury face another away game versus 3rd from bottom Folkestone 1st X1.