The ladies started off the second half of the outdoor season with a Dundee Derby at Dawson. After a tense first encounter under the lights at Mayfield in the first half of the season, we knew it was going to be a tough game.

The 1st quarter started with a strong attack from Dundee Wanderers which resulted in an early short corner being awarded to them. However, the Grove defensive corner team were strong and defended well to stop Wanderers from scoring early. After this we certainly switched on which resulted in many strong spells of attack in Wanderers defensive circle. Which led to plenty of opportunities although we were not quite scoring these chances yet due to many key saves from the Wanderers goalkeeper. This resulted in the score being 0-0 at the first break.

The 2nd quarter was much the same with attacks happening for both sides but following an unfortunate corner awarded to Wanderers they opened the score line with a well worked slip at the top of the circle which was then flicked into the top corner.

After an encouraging talk at half time from Luke, we continued to put them under pressure in attack. The quarter saw a few corners and promising attacks from each team however the score line remained the same with Wanderers having a one goal advantage. However, we knew at the end of the 3rd quarter that these final 17.5 minutes would be crucial if we wanted to open the second half of the season on a high note.

In the final quarter, the attack finally broke through the Wanderers defence and after 30 seconds Harriet Fleetham capitalised on a breakdown of the ball in front of the goalkeeper to make the score equal. Following the restart, we were straight back on the attack. Anna Green took the ball from a sideline and fired it to the top of the attacking circle where Freya Melville then won the ball, drove into the circle and passed it square to Anna Haddow who slapped it into the goal putting us ahead with 13 minutes to play. With 10 minutes to go, Katie Stott won the ball on the halfway line and ran up the left-hand side. She reversed the ball towards goal which was initially saved by the keeper however the rebound falls right back to Katie where she reverses it into the far corner making it 3-1 and a win for the Grove ladies.

A big thank you to our great supporters on the sideline as well as Byte for sponsoring the match. The ladies go again on Saturday at Dawson against Granite City Wanderers where they aim to achieve another promising win.