Cheltenham Civil Service Ladies 1st v Bristol Ladies Union 1st, 15th March 2026.
It was the semi-final of the GFA Women’s Challenge Cup, which was set to be our biggest match of the season so far. CCSL are leading division 2 comfortably, and their goal scoring record is off the chain. Before the game I got out my notes to give a brief pre-match talk, and was roundly heckled for it, and quite rightly! The message though was pretty straightforward: They are beatable, and I have a plan…
Unfortunately as Burns wrote:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley
Which is basically what happened. Our prior knowledge of who their top goal scorers were didn’t really help all that much. They were fast, they were strong, and they were relentless. We could make some excuses: We only had 1 substitute available. We were playing on grass for the first time in a couple of months, so passes were a little weaker than they could have been. There were a couple of offside calls missed. But the reality is that we were outplayed.
Half time and 6-0 down, we took a short break from the wind and rain to thaw out a little, and decided that the best thing we could do was try to minimise the damage, to enjoy the rest of the game, and maybe even get a consolation goal.
Reader, we did not get a consolation goal.
What we did get was an 18 year old being mown down by a 20-or-30-something, twice in as many minutes. The first was just a mistimed tackle, but the second was an absolute flattening which left Jas lying on the ground with both a head injury and suspected sprained (hopefully not broken) arm. I’m assuming we got a free kick from that, I don’t think any cards were shown, but I don’t really know because I was focused on first aid.
CCSL managed to match their first half tally, and by the full-time whistle the team were exhausted, but at least they all found some humour in the game. Connie limped off the pitch with a painful knee, but still able to crack a few jokes. Player of the Match: Everyone. The whole team gave 100%, and that’s all we can ask. Magic Moment: Rosa, running around with soaking wet gloves hanging off her hands like two shopping bags!
So that’s our run in the County Cup finished, and I’m immensely proud of the team for getting to the semi-final. Now we’re back to concentrating on the Div 3 league table.
