Lydney 2s travelled to Thornbury for our early morning game ??. While desperately trying not to be distracted by the presence of a minor children’s tv celebrity, initially Lydney battled to settle into any structure, in what felt straight away like what was going to be a very physical game, however the cobwebs were very quickly blasted away when in the first 10 minutes one of our defenders received a ball to the forehead during a tackle.

Our player was swiftly whisked away to the local hospital by our very own excellent rapid response team Julie and Marcus to be checked over and patched up. ( after a short visit to a very efficient Yate MIU for some steri strips I am pleased to report Liv is on the mend ??) Even though we were a bit shaken up, the game got back underway.

With a defender down and now no subs, as a team we put our heads together to make a few quick alterations to our formation and positions. Our ever dedicated and enthusiastic supporters team on the side clicked into ‘max support and positivity mode ‘ and I think between that and the shock heightening our focus and determination, within a couple of minutes we celebrated our first goal.

Thornbury retaliated and by half time the score was 1-1. What followed was a very nail biting, competitive and slightly volatile 2nd half resembling something between WWF and tennis as both teams took it in turns to score taking it up to 3-3 with about 10 minutes to go.

It was down to our oldies at the back to supply a bit of light entertainment - Deb lost a shoe (Cinderella) & Jane decided to do a tuck and roll and a bit of tag teaming (WWF). Even though we were all now feeling fatigued, Lydney dug deep with every single player fully focused and putting in one hundred percent. Some beautiful linked up triangular team play resulted in an ecstatically received 4th goal by our ‘Dame of the Game‘ Kate edging us into the lead. What followed was an intense 8 minutes as both teams with everything to play for battled right up to the final whistle when we were finally able to celebrate a slightly unexpected 4-3 victory.