The game began with immediate battles across the pitch, both sides challenging to take the upper hand. Church's defence was more than equal to the early pressure placed on them, CREHAN and LEDGER clearing up early dangerous balls. The midfield battled to gain momentum and the forward duo of ARIF and BRADLEY working hard. It was Penistone who took the upper hand and on 20 minutes LONGSTONE found herself through on goal with the Socrates keeper pulling off a fine stop. The ball rebounded to ARIF who took who chance and slotted the ball neatly in for 1-0.

This gave Church confidence and for the next ten minutes they began to dominate with chances for DARBY, BRADLEY and STANCILL who were unfortunate not to capitalise on them, with the Socrates keeper pulling off a string of fine saves. It was BRADLEY who broke the deadlock for the second time with a fine finish inside the box.

Towards the end of the first half Socrates found some dominance of their own, BINEY, LEDGER, FIDLER and TALBOT sustaining the pressure well and able to switch and clear the ball. STEPHENS picking up anything that did find its way through. Socrates were man marking many of the Penistone players, so our ladies were having to work really hard to find space to play; STANCILL in particular, putting in a string of excellent crosses with the keeper again equal to the shots and chances Church had.

HALF TIME : Penistone Church LFC 2-0 Socrates LFC.

The second half was much more end to end with Church taking their foot off the pedal a bit and giving Socrates more time on the ball, Church were switching the ball well and finding space to pass through to MILLAR, ARIF and BRADLEY stopped again by some wonderful goalkeeping.

On 70 minutes after a lovely run down the wing the ball found its way into the home penalty area and after somewhat of a scrappy affair the luck fell to Socrates when the ball ricochted off 3 or 4 players and found its way into the back of the net 2-1. This spurred Socrates on and Church had to show some real character and composure to hold on to the win, which they duelfully did, every player working hard and in the end thoroughly deserving the win.

FULL TIME: Penistone Church LFC 2-1 Socrates LFC

After thoughts: today was a real test for the ladies with Socrates coming at them, although they dominated in the first half the Socrates keeper really shone and was able to stop our ladies from getting a comfortable lead. This in turn gave Socrates momentum and confidence and made for a very tough second half. Our ladies stuck at it and gave it their all though, equal to the pressure they were sustaining and dealing with tactics they had not previously faced. In the end the ladies thoroughly deserved the win.