The start of our home match against Altrincham was delayed by 20 mins as one of their players was running late, somehow his Mum had got lost en route! 9 Vikings were present with Lewis unavailable this week. After last week’s nail-biter at Wilmslow, we opted to push Charlie further forward to give more options in attack, meaning Harry and Sam added central duties to their usual defensive role.

Period 1 saw Altrincham mainly on the attack, although we were keeping our shape really well, and looked dangerous on the break. We conceded just one goal, when their forward nipped through and finished from a tight angle. End of period, score was 0-1.

The second period saw us improve and have more possession, although we were suffering from some fairly robust play by Altrincham, Luke catching a high elbow square on the chin but he battled on admirably.  We conceded a second goal in ridiculous style, the referee allowing our opponents to take a quick corner whilst we were still making substitutions! No amount of (polite) protests could convince the ref to overturn his decision – so frustrating. We were much more competitive in this period, score at the break was 0-2.

We went for the strong finish in the final period, Altrincham were beginning to tire as they had no subs, and we were fired up to get back in the match. We attacked strongly for the whole period, covering the ground quickly and pinning Altrincham back for longs spells. Their goalie made saves, and the cross bar was rattled at least once. Charlie and Harry were this time on the receiving end of the rough stuff, but showed great determination, as did Tyler in goals, who recovered well from an unpleasant foul to pull off a superb fingertip save right at the end. Final score 0-2.

We are seeing improvement week on week, like at Wilmslow previously we had chances and just need that killer touch in front of goal. With a bit of luck and a few more decisions in our favour, the score today could have been very different.

Everyone played well, it was a good, solid team performance which made picking a player of the match really difficult. Luke showed bravery and great effort, Sam continues to impress wherever he is asked to play, Tom is showing some lovely touches and is so good at closing down the opposition defence. Charlie ran his socks off as usual and Harry also proved he is strong in a number of positions. Player of the Match was awarded to Izzy, whilst many players showed improvement, hers was the greatest, her work rate at full back was superb, with strong tackles, and the way she dummied and went past their forward in the 3rd period was a joy.

Well done to all, thank you to our brilliant supporters