Sun 18 Oct: Teddington Athletic 8-1 South Park

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Teddington Athletic's first home game as an 11-a-side team, at their new base of the St Mary's campus on Broom Road, went along like many of their previous games: with pleasing parental help, footballing intelligence, a good mentality and plenty of goals.

The parents were rallying to the Tampa Tour cause, creating a makeshift refreshment stall selling bacon butties and the like to raise money for the Easter 2016 trip Stateside. The girls, meanwhile, were demonstrating their intelligence and mentality by overcoming some obstacles.

For starters, the previous week's ghosts need to be exorcised. A chastening defeat at Wimbledon had underlined the squad's need to pull together and work for each other, and circumstances for this game against South Park forced them to do so even more.

Teddington's squad is blessed with many good footballers, but not many defenders. In fact, if every girl honestly nominated her favoured position, there would probably only be three defenders – and all of them were absent. Saskia Brewster and Millie Theobald were on holiday, and with Ella Parkinson-Mearns still injured, replacements were needed.

Luckily, Ella Waldron – in the week she was deservedly named Best Female Footballer at the Teddington School Sports Awards – is more than capable of commanding the backline, as she has done on many occasions. To her left, Carla Novakovic has always cheerily pitched in wherever requested, including a couple of defensive stints. And on the right of the back three, Anna Kauffmann willingly took on a new role to continue a very impressive and welcome return to the team after illness problems last season.

Finding midfielders is rarely difficult. Amy Hallett continued her education as the defensive anchor behind Emily Coulson and Ella Dodd, with Phoebe Head and Millie MacEacharn wide. Up top, Ella Bothamley and Ale Fairn continued their burgeoning partnership, while Sadie Day and Sinead Morris were ready on the bench.

The only thing the team needed was a goalkeeper… and a minute before the 10am kick-off, in sprinted Ruby Rudkin, full of apology and determination.

And although Teddington had the better of the early exchanges, South Park had the first clear chance, through miscommunication at the back. Jelly tried to let a bouncing ball through to Ruby, but the goalkeeper wasn't as ready as the striker, who nipped in and was only stopped by Ruby bravely diving at her feet.

Any worries were eased by two quick Teddington goals before the tenth minute. First Phoebe sped through and, after initially seeming to take it too close to the goalkeeper, effortlessly clipped it over her. Two minutes later she doubled her tally with an instinctive left-foot finish at the back post from a corner.

Settling in, Teddington were playing lovely football. Ale dropped deep to pick out a clever 10-yard diagonal in front of Macca, whose superb whipped cross behind the back four was met by a solid Boz shot, well saved. Then Phoebe, Doddsy and Boz were all denied in a frantic 30-second period.

By the 12th minute Boz had the ball in the net, but to no avail. Emily had done well to win a falling ball in midfield, Doddsy and played through a clever ball for Phoebe to pull back for Boz – but after consultation with the linesman, the referee judged the latter two to have been marginally offside.

Still Teddington pressed, setting each other up with pleasing teamwork. After 21 minutes Phoebe won the ball 25 yards out, Boz skipped past the defender and cut through on goal but unselfishly squared for Ale to finish left-footed at the far post for 3-0.

On the half-hour three became four. Doddsy powered on from midfield through the inside-right channel and shot towards the far side – and when the goalkeeper parried the shot, Ale was again on hand to lash it high into the net.

South Park weren't lying down, and with two minutes left they broke through the lines – only for Jelly, Carla and Anna to swarm back and muscle the striker off the ball. Anna in particular was impressive at right-back, settling into her new role as if born for it, timing her tackles expertly despite the left-winger's speed.  

Even so, much of the defensive arts are about concentration and learning. Teddington didn't heed the warning and in injury time conceded a goal with virtually the last kick, despite all three defenders desperately trying to clear.

The half-time break brought changes which reflected the squad's depth rather than any deficiencies ion the departing. Sinead came on for the excellent Macca wide left, while on the other side Sadie replaced two-goal Ale – with Phoebe shifting into an experimental new central role behind Boz. New position, same result: two minutes in, Phoebe completed her hat-trick, coming in on the angle and expertly finding the far corner.

Ten minutes after the break, Phoebe again rampaged down the right, sent through by a clever little diagonal, but her cross couldn't quite be reached by Sinead. The enigmatic left-winger was slightly rusty, suffering from a lack of football, but would come to dominate the later stages of the game.

On 51 minutes, Sinead was set up by Doddsy powering through the inside-left channel, and although the winger's cross eluded Boz, Phoebe – bending her run round Boz to hit the far post – had more time to judge the flight and clip home first time for her fourth of the afternoon and her ninth of the season.

Boz was clearly gagging for a goal. Having bagged a brace on her debut at South Park, she had endured two games affected by a heavy cold and was looking to get back on the scoresheet. She got an assist of sorts on 57 minutes when her corner was unluckily deflected in for an own goal, but just after the hour she finally got her reward, calmly hammering home a chance cleverly created by Sinead's excellent cut inside and curled right-foot ball to feet.

By that time Phoebe and the diligent Amy had been replaced by Macca and Ale. The striker was again given a new role, as a No.10 playing off Boz, but still managed a couple of chances to complete her own hat-trick - sadly fluffed, although she pronounced herself happy with her day's work.

As might Teddington be. After the Wimbledon defeat they had got straight back on the horse, working well for each other in defence, midfield and attack, with a number of players impressing in new positions.

It is a pity that low squad numbers mean the next game is not for three weeks: the impending trip to Crystal Palace Reds has had to be forfeited because the holiday-ravaged visitors can't raise a team, while the following Sunday's Surrey Cup game with Kempton has been postponed for a week. It is the final time Teddington can request a postponement without forfeit in a season of great promise, if everyone works together on and off the field.

TEDDINGTON ATHLETIC: Ruby Rudkin, Anna Kauffmann, Ella Waldron, Carla Novakovic, Amy Hallett, Ella Dodd, Emily Coulson, Phoebe Head (4), Ella Bothamley (1), Millie MacEacharn, Ale Fairn (2). 1og.