Left it all there.

The Ladies 1s followed the Men’s 1s with taking on their respective Spencer team. With the men coming back from the jaws of defeat to swipe a 2-1 victory, this gave the Ladies a nice boost of motivation going into theirs.

Ipswich started off with piling on the pressure and being rewarded with an early short corner from forward Georgia Harrold. Unfortunately no goal off the back of it. Despite not scoring off any circle entires, Ipswich kept working hard. Finding most of their success down the right with some strong distribution from Lizzy Wheelhouse. Although ambitious balls at times, the forward line happy to have their hard leads rewarded.

As the game went into the second quarter, Ipswich were struggling with figuring out Spencer’s unique out-letting. After a few corners Ipswich conceded with Spencer scoring off of one of them. 1-0 half time.

Third quarter, Ipswich on the back foot slightly and getting impatient. The toing-and-froing and the workrate Ipswich kept applying to maintain the pressure was taking a toll. More moments of hold-your-breath when opportunities arose for Ipswich but no reward. A few cards started to show due to the frantic play. Spencer down to 10, then Ipswich down to 10, both teams still maintaining the end to end game. Unfortunately Spencer upgraded a chance taking the game to 2-0 heading into the final 17.5 minutes.

4th quarter and Ipswich had a big talking from captain and POTM, Lucy Dunnett. This is where the change came. From 2-0 down - something needed to happen. Aggression, determination and desire happened. Dunnett finds herself on the ball and spots a great line to the circle where the free Taylor Ball awaited for the ball. Collected and scored! 1-2. A goal for Ipswich felt like fifth gear was found, a fighting finish… however the high was broken quickly with Spencer scoring only minutes after on a counter attack. The game ended 3-1, Ipswich fought until the final whistle. The girls came away defeated and probably frustrated. With chances upon chances and only one conversion, Spencer matching the chances but just able to score more…

It does hurt to write about another defeat but the team’s performance at the weekend can’t go unnoticed. They left everything out there and unsurprisingly still recovering from it now! A fire has been lit after this weekend and it’s going to be exciting.

The Ladies head back into the depths of London for a late clash against Hampstead & Westminster 2s. With some hard training and good prep this week. Let’s see what Ipswich can do…