Royston arrived in town fighting for the title, having lost just once all season; unfortunately, losing four girls in the 24 hours before the game to injuries and illness wasn’t in the game plan for Deeping.

The remaining 10 girls performed with passion and togetherness that was a pleasure to watch; it’s without doubt the best team performance of the season. With three defenders missing, it was a makeshift defence, well marshalled by Caitlyn & Zara, with Heidi and Evie at fullbacks; all four were outstanding.

When the Royston attack got through, Sky was her reassuring self, keeping them out on numerous occasions. The four midfielders covered every blade of grass, and Eva up front on her own caused panic with her strong running.

Royston took the lead after 21 minutes with a well-taken goal; it remained 0-1 at Halftime.

The 2nd half continued in the same vein as the 1st, with the Deeping girls battling for every ball; it took Royston until the 65th minute to extend the lead. Sky was unable to repeat last week's heroics to keep out a penalty, and we then lost Isla to a bad knee injury and played out the last 25 minutes with nine players.

Despite this, the game effectively wasn’t over until Royston scored the 3rd, with 12 minutes remaining. To the Deeping girls' credit and showing great resilience, we had the final say with a wonderful strike from Lily in the 80th minute, a much-deserved reward for the girls' efforts.

To have the opposition coaches say after the game that that’s their hardest fixture all season shows how well we performed.

POTM - Lily, who not only scored a great goal but also covered every blade of grass. Lily is sponsored by Evie Holroyd’s Beauty Page