There couldn’t be a much more difficult start to the season than playing last year’s league champions (albeit under the new banner of Tamworth rather than St. Johns). Add to that the absence of Maisie and Erin; mercifully Evie N passed a late fitness test and Rachel’s foot seems to be baring up.

By tradition Greentowers are slow starters but not the case today. On two minutes Evie N drilled the ball to the bottom left corner and was only denied the dream start by a really smart save by Tamworth’s assured keeper tipping wide for a corner. Tamworth fought back and had a couple of speculative efforts but soon learned that they weren’t easily going to get past Grace in Greentowers goal.

Just under the quarter hour came the first Tamworth goal, courtesy of two errors. First an optimistic diagonal ball went straight through the left back and the right winger was able to enter the penalty area and blast it ... against the cross bar. It was a red shirt that pounced on the rebound and lashed it into the net.

The response was positive and immediate. Playing out from the back; Grace, Sylvia, Evie N but the ball wouldn’t quite fall to Sydney to pull the trigger. A minute later Evie N did hit the target (of sorts). Another low hard shot but this time with significant bend didn’t do quite enough to get inside the bottom right. It did however hit a passing bicycle (the rider may decide not to go across Richmond Park on a Sunday morning in future) in the game’s comedy moment.

The second goal came from a full back drifting too deep and playing red shirts on the other wing on-side. That allowed another shot from inside the area and after a good initial save by Grace, again Tamworth won the rebound drill.

Those two errors / goals aside, there was little to divide the teams; both playing some good football. With Evie N and Holly in the centre, Libby created havoc on the left, linking up with Sydney; Mollie and Sydney doing likewise on the right. The perennial problem of not quite getting in position to unleash a shot. Sylvia patrolling the centre of defence and together with fullbacks Evie S and Megan (and at times Ray) very much kept the champions at bay. When the roles changed, sometimes Holly or Evie N at the back; the same assuredness was on display. Near misses continued; notably an exquisite cross from Holly just evaded Evie S’s attempted header.

In the second half, Danielle played more of a part in the middle and Evie S (who deservedly won player of the match) was found in a more forward role. Instead of dwell on why the clear cut chances didn’t quite arise it might be better to focus on the inevitability that with all that pace and determination one day soon the floodgates will open. The worst part of the second half was not so much the third goal but the injury to Sydney. It’s not clear quite what happened but she was clearly in a lot of pain as she was carried off.

One area we did win hands down (or should that be foot up) was in the foul throws; 5-2 by my count. Something else to work on.

Coach Ant Littlejohns on the performance: A good performance which maybe deserved more against last season’s league winners. They had some new players which added to their already talented squad. Unlucky to conceed two goals that came back off the crossbar, we just didn't react quick enough. A couple of mistakes in controlling and playing out too would have avoided this.

On fitness and injuries: Had to manage fitness of the Girls as we were a little short, in particular when Sydney had to come off with a sprained ankle. Fitness will be key this season, as will putting the ball in the net. 3-0 flattered Tamworth but we must cut out mistakes and be clinical in front of goal.