Cheltenham Spa Women 1st v Bristol Ladies Union 1st, 8th March 2026.
Another grey day, another match on an artificial grass surface, which means another round of injuries. As the game started, our 2 substitutes took the opportunity to nip to the bathroom, which seemed like a perfectly reasonable plan. We came out looking positive with all guns firing, then 90 seconds into the match Sophie got tangled up with a defender, and as they both went down their feet stayed locked together and it was Sophie’s ankle that came off the worse. As we broke out the ice packs it was clear that Sophie’s game was over, and for several long minutes we had nobody available to put on in her place.
The timeline is all a bit mixed up for me as I spent a lot of the match dealing with various injuries. It’s a well known trope that No plan survives contact with the enemy, and that’s really what we were having to deal with continually. I’d be preparing to make a specific change, only for a player to signal to the bench that they needed to come off, and then it was a hasty direct substitution followed by a few minutes of trying to figure out how to rearrange players so that everybody was in a more suitable position. Grace scored our first goal around the 15 minute mark, and for the next 15 we were able to settle in and play a more structured game. The last 10 minutes of the first half became a bit more ragged as we struggled to deal with Cheltenham’s strong attacks, and by the half time whistle we were 3-1 down.
We came out in the second half with a modified shape, but very quickly a number of players found themselves being dragged out of position. Once again there were spells of dominance by both teams, in what was a very competitive match. Once again the astroturf curse struck as Katie was caught and suffered the same painful injury she got a few weeks ago, on the same pitch, albeit on the other leg. For the last quarter of the match we had both Sophie and Katie sitting side by side nursing their pain with an array of ice packs. Both teams scored again during the second half, and both teams looked like the intensity of the game was taking its toll. There was a moment when Jas had just run the length and breadth of the pitch with the ball at her feet, weaving in and out of opposing players, passed the ball which was unfortunately intercepted, then she paused and looked over at me for a few seconds with a pained expression before darting off in the opposite direction.
The end result was Cheltenham Spa 4 – BLU 2, with both goals scored by Grace. It seems that the 3G pitch at Winchcombe School might be our nemesis, and I’m happy that were not going back there again this season. Magic Moment: Grace, for the 2 goals which kept us in contention, and Jas got the Player of the Match trophy for being a ball of pure energy for 90 minutes.
