Tuffley Rovers Ladies 1st v Bristol Ladies Union 1st, 17th May 2026
First of all, sorry for radio silence for the last two matches, but my already weak writing skills had left me for a bit. I definitely wasn’t going to leave out the final match of the season though, and a crucial one at that. The lower half of the div 3 table was all very close, and another loss would put us in the relegation danger zone so we really wanted the win this time.
The first hurdle was finding the right car park, then identifying where the pitch was, and then we eventually found our allocated changing room. Driving up the M5 gave a little foreboding of the weather we might experience, and there were plenty of dark clouds looming nearby, but for the start of the match it was dry and sunny. I had a short chat with the referee, who told me that this was the worst looking 3G pitch he’d seen, also pointing out the corner flag which was only about 60cm high.
As is fairly normal for us the first 5 minutes of the game were pretty scrappy, with possession switching left and right quickly and chaotically. It soon calmed down and we began to take control of the game. Most of the play was in Tuffley’s half, so I think we were in our comfort zone. Our aim was to get into the game and score as quickly as possible, and at just over 9 minutes that’s what Annabelle did. The half continued with BLU dominating play, but although we had more chances they were generally a pinball scenario with lots of bodies in and around the goal, so none got in. There was a bit of tedium in the continual shouts of “foul throw, Ref!” from Tuffley, and eventually the ref got fed up and had a stern word, explaining that while they weren’t very good throws they were in fact all legal. It was looking comfortable up to the last minute when suddenly a rare error at the back had two of our defenders tangled up in each other gifting Tuffley’s striker a one-on-one in front of the goal for the equaliser.
So at half time it was back to square one, but nothing to panic about. Clouds were gathering again, but we were still dry for the time being. During the rest I got a chance to check the result from the other important match in the division, and realised that Bradley Stoke had been beaten by Winchcombe… This meant that we really did need at least a point to secure our place in div 3 next season, but also that we had a good chance of leaping up the table. The concern was that Tuffley had to win to stay up, so they’d be gunning for it.
The second half got underway with the same instructions in mind: Come out in full attack mode and get the early goal. 8 minutes later Annabelle got a clear chance and put the ball in the back of the net. Unfortunately Tuffley responded within 5 minutes, this time with a more worthy scoring opportunity. We were still playing the better football though (in my biased opinion), and we were opening the game up a lot by using more of the width of the pitch. The rain had started by now and the temperature was dropping. We had quite a few good chances in front of goal, and I was confident that we’d be the next to score. Annabelle clearly wanted her hat-trick, which nobody was going to deny her, and at 70 minutes she got it. BLU were back on top. The rain fell harder, and then at some point the rain literally became harder as it turned to hail. We were into the final 5 minutes… Tuffley weren’t giving up and nor were we. Lightning flashed overhead and was immediately followed by a crack of thunder. Players were looking at the ref expecting him to do something about it, but play continued through the maelstrom. Thunder, lightning, rain, hail, and who knows… maybe there were frogs in it too! We had one final attack on goal, missed, and then the ref blew for full time. Hasty handshakes, and everyone grabbed whatever they found near them and ran for the changing room.
So the end result was Tuffley 2, BLU 3, and we secure our position in div 3 for next season. Not only that but we will finish in the top half of the table. A well deserved win from a fiercely committed team. Kudos to Annabelle for her 3 goals. Magic Moment: Connie, 4 minutes into the game, took a throw-in and somehow managing to launch both the ball and herself up the pitch, landing flat on her face. Player of the Match was Izzy, who kept getting herself into perfect positions to work the ball through the midfield, and almost dancing around opposition players with some excellent footwork.
