On a warm morning in Warwick, Sils 2s travelled to play Shipston-on-Stour ladies. Shipston are a really nice, rural club, who travel 20 minutes just to get to their home pitch, and as such are a well established team with the same players playing year-on-year; this means that what they perhaps lack in youth and energy, they more than make up for in knowing how each plays, and what their strengths are, so they are never a push-over.

This game was to be just as expected, and whilst Sils had more of the ball in the opening phases, Shipston took the lead, when an attack down their left led to a loose ball in the D, and a powerful strike from the home striker which looked to shock the Sils team into realising they had a game on their hands.

Thankfully, the energy of the youngsters, combined with the cool heads of Ellie Gooderidge, Louisa Tchakhotine, Claire Wright and Lucy Windeatt meant that Sils were not behind for too long. The visiting team won a PC, and whilst the initial play broke down, Windeatt was on hand to try and get another shot in, which ended up being deflected to the far post where Anand Bharath was on hand to fire the ball home from close range.

Soon, one became two, with Delphine Tchakhotine being the person to prosper at the far post after a good move down the right involving Aana Haque, Alex Lottering and Anna Grove once again saw the ball make it to the far post and the younger Tchakhotine was on hand to give the Sils the lead.

The remainder of the half was largely spent in the Shipston half, with an excellent attacking press turning the ball over on several occasions, but the finish was not quite there when it really counted in the D, to increase the Sils lead.

Half-time, with the score at 2-1, and knowing the next goal would be crucial.

Shipston opted for a deep defence approach in the second half, trying to limit the space for the young Sils forwards, and then leaving one striker high to see if she could capitalise on any long balls through to her. Sils did not help themselves by regularly making simple mistakes (kicking the ball more than they stopped it with their sticks) and playing into the home team's strong defensive unit too often, and if it had not been for two excellent 1-on-1 saves by Molly Denton in the Sils goal, it could well have been Shipston with the lead going into the last 10 minutes.

As it was, with around 4 minutes to play, a nice move (where no-one kicked the ball) ended up in Laura Thurman finding space to run at the Shipston goal and slot home from the middle of the D to secure the three points for the Copt Heat outfit. Never an easy game, so a welcome 3 points to keep the Sils in the hunt for the top spots in the division.