Our girls began their week with the opening fixture of our league season. As reigning champions, we were looking to begin the defence of our crown with a victory away to Fir Tree Junior School in Wallingford.

After some cautious opening minutes, we settled into the game and made some interesting strides forward, with Freya, Issy, Isabella and Eliza all coming close to breaking the deadlock. We also remained solid at the back, with Lili, Nia, Saule and our debutant Elodie all standing firm. If the ball was fired past them, Claudia was on hand to gather the ball and kickstart our next attack.

It was the type of game where one goal looked like it would cause the floodgates to open, and that was exactly what happened. Issy pressed well down the right hand side and the ball eventually fell to Freya. She took a touch and fired a low shot inside the goalkeeper’s near post to give us a deserved 1-0 lead.

Unfortunately, we neither added a second nor sustained our lead through to the half time break. Towards the end of the half, Fir Tree cleared away one of our corners and the ball fell nicely to their striker. She burst through on goal and fired a powerful shot into the far corner to send the sides in level at the break.

We came out for the second half with all guns blazing, and it wasn’t long until we restored our lead. Issy fired over a low corner from the right, and with Bella, Lili and Eliza all making nuisances of themselves in the box, the ball was deflected into their own net by an unlucky Fir Tree defender.

However, our lead didn’t last too long in the second half either. A lovely through ball split our defence, and the same Fir Tree striker poked the ball into the corner to level the scores once again.

Both sides spent the last moments of the game huffing and puffing as they searched for a winning goal, but the mutual desire to avoid penalties was not satisfied, and we headed into our second penalty shootout in less than a week.

Eliza, Lili, Issy and Freya all stepped up and scored. A quartet of penalties so impressive that the Fir Tree manager could not help but congratulate the takers.

Fir Tree scored two and missed two of their spot kicks, meaning that our girls started the season with a bonus point for winning on penalties and can look ahead to the next league fixture with confidence and momentum.

Those who transported and supported on the day are, as always, hugely appreciated.

The team was: Lili F, Nia B, Freya H, Bella B-L, Saule B, Claudia V, Eliza G, Elodie D, Isabella DS and Issy C.