The Diamonds sponsored by Impact Retail, MJB Motors and CPS Group knew todays visit from GNG would be their toughest league fixture to date with the opposition also enjoying a fantastic start to the league season having taken 7 points from their first three games.

Straight from the kick off GNG showed they hadn't come to the league leaders to just to take part, winning the ball almost immediately and getting forward. The opening few minutes followed the same pattern with GNG breaking up the play and creating overloads wide to try and exploit the Diamonds.
As the game settled The Diamonds started to get a foothold in the game and try and the midfield three of Safia, Anna and Lacey trying to put some good passing moves together and feed Amelia and Isla up front. When moves did break down GNG were quick to counter and the Diamonds needed the back three of Alara, Bethan and Emily to be at the top of their game at times to keep GNG at bay.

It was clear that these were two evenly matched teams, and who ever scored first would win it. Midway through the half and the Diamonds put a lovely 5 pass move together and Ellie T released Amelia with a wonderful diagonal through ball that opened up the GNG defence, Amelia showed a lovely bit of skill to get half a yard and delivered a wonderful ball into box only for Ellie O's shot to be blocked, in response GNG came straight back at the Diamonds which saw Lexi B dive bravely at the forwards feet to keep the scores level
HT 0-0

As the second half began the Diamonds came out looking to put pressure on the GNG back line and try to force an opening. A few minutes into the half and Lily S found half a yard in the box and fired a shot through the crowded players and the ball fell to Ellie 5 yards out whose control was instant and her shot looked destined to go in only for a goal line clearance to deny her the opener. With the Diamonds pushing forward there were gaps left for GNG to expose but time and again Lilly B, Alara, Ellie T and the excellent Emily found a way to emerge with the ball.

The next big opportunity came from an in swinging corner from Safia which was brilliantly flicked on by Bethan towards Lacey whose shot was blocked on the line, the rebound fell to Millie her shot was also blocked.

The last 10 minutes saw a shift and GNG started to have a good spell putting pressure on the Diamonds, with two excellent saves from Lexi the only thing keeping the Diamonds from falling behind.

Then with the final whistle about to blow the GNG pounced on a sliced clearance and somehow found herself unmarked in front of goal and this time there was no denying her and she slotted the ball inside the post to snatch the points inflicting the Diamonds first defeat of the campaign and drop the diamonds to 3rd in the league.

FT 0-1.
On another day the Diamonds could have taken maximum points, losing in the fashion that they did today always feels worse but there were some fantastic individual performances and some brilliant team moves.