A nasty head injury to debutante Sophie Kelly brought the Women’s team’s first competitive game of the season to a premature end last Sunday as an ambulance was called to tend to the stricken Sophie. No-one will be able to doubt Sophie’s competitive instincts as she lunged bravely for a loose ball in the six-yard box and collided with a part of the keeper’s body which was unfortunately harder than Sophie’s head. Sophie briefly lost consciousness and was clearly in a bad way; luckily, experienced first-aiders were on hand in Emma and Robyn, who were swiftly into action while I was still looking up the index in my FA first-aid manual. It was clearly unwise to move Sophie until paramedics arrived and so the Referee rightly called an end to the game with 20 minutes left. Thankfully scans at hospital revealed that Sophie had no lasting damage, though suffering from concussion and whiplash. Get well soon Sophie!

By this time Westside should have been seen off as the Borough dominated the game, only to squander several good chances to take the lead; the best of which was a penalty awarded when Gemma was unceremoniously placed in lunar orbit by a clumsy/dirty challenge when through on goal. I temporarily discarded my assistant referee’s flag to record the resultant goal on my phone for the newsletter, only to hastily delete it as Kirsty deposited the ball in the trees behind the goal rather than between the sticks. An unexpected blemish on an otherwise accomplished performance.

The opposition’s robust approach left a few others nursing injuries after the game, so a replay would be relished. So far we have received little encouragement from the League, who clearly like to get games out of the way as quickly as possible. We shall see.