Sun 16 Oct: Maidenhead (H) L 3-6

The forecast was for heavy weather, and while the Met in Met Office doesn’t stand for “metaphor”, they picked a suitable image for a miserable morning which left Teddington shivering and vulnerable.

With Anna Kauffmann, Giulia Clini and Ale Fairn unavailable, Teddington’s coaches were down to 13 but still had to make tough decisions: with so many squad members capable of playing in so many positions. In the end, captain Carla Novakovic slotted into right-back, with Amy Hallett back in her deep midfield role. Emily Coulson slipped inside to replace Giulia, with Emily Bashford’s ever-increasing confidence allowing her to start a game for the first time since March.

Maidenhead, second in the league having beaten everybody but Wimbledon, started the stronger, breaking the offside trap twice in the first five minutes. In the first instance Saskia Brewster – playing despite ongoing ankle trouble, which will hopefully heal over the coming fortnight sprinted back superbly to dispossess the striker. In the second, Ruby Rudkin slipped but recovered, sprang up and did enough to terrify the striker into insignificance.

If Ruby was literally “up and at ‘em” at the back, so was Ella Dodd up the sharp end. Maidenhead were playing a back three built around Zuri, the tall accomplished centre-back who usually looks so accomplished on the ball – but from a goal-kick Doddsy closed her down, dispossessed her, broke into the right-hand side of the area and smashed it high past the advancing goalkeeper. Seven minutes gone, 1-0.

Doddsy’s dogged front-running was pulling the Maidenhead trio hither and yon, giving her team-mates good options. When Bash got the ball on halfway, she had the awareness to spot Doddsy’s diagonal run, the confidence to calculate the pass and the ability to complete it.

Still the visitors threatened the breakthrough. Happy to pass around in clever midfield triangles but always seeking the chance to get in behind, they had Ruby haring out to the edge of her area, then pushing wide a 20-yard snapshot. The goalkeeper who had looked somewhat ill before the game now looked more at ease and in her element.

In the 19th minute a superb corner at the second attempt from Ella Bothamley – frustratedly peripheral thus far – almost fell for Doddsy on the six-yard line. Maidenhead countered but Amy zoomed brilliantly across, showing awareness, pace and strength to close down the problem, find a team-mate and launch a counter-counter as Boz flew down the right and set up Doddsy for another shot saved.

Amy’s interception typified Teddington’s first half. Maidenhead may have had more of the ball but the home side were constantly disrupting their midfield triangles. Not only were Amy and Liz Kriebel diligently digging in, but Bash and Boz were tracking their wingbacks, while Emily was also working back from the front of the central triumvirate. The end result was that Teddington effectively had five across midfield, matching Maidenhead’s 3-5-2 and leaving the home side with two spare players.

Knowing that the ball can move faster than the player, the visitors insistently tested Teddington’s high line with through-balls, which usually resulted in correct offside calls as a well-drilled offside trap worked on several occasions. Then, in the 34th minute, it suddenly didn’t.

One of Teddington’s most reliable players, Saskia had been as efficient as ever, and had dropped back five yards to cover Millie MacEacharn – who had just come on for a well-deserved run-out while Bash had an equally well-deserved break. Trouble is, she was still five yards behind her team-mates as the latest Maidenhead through-ball whizzed past, allowing the striker to poke past Ruby. Chalk that one up to a lack of awareness and communication among Teddington’s still-quiet defence.

On the balance of play, Maidenhead may have deserved an equaliser but the home side didn’t buckle… yet. Three minutes after the goal, an Emily snapshot from 25 yards slipped through the goalkeeper’s sodden gloves but not quite over the line. Then Boz drove down the right and won a corner, which she put onto Em’s boot for a tucked six-yard volley almost identical to the one at Wimbledon the previous week.

So Teddington were back in front, and with the wind in their favour in the second half, although they were warned that Maidenhead’s balls over the top might therefore hold up obligingly for the visitors. As it turned out, that wasn’t the main threat Teddington faced in the second period; of the five goals Maidenhead would score, only one was from a through-ball, and not particularly lengthy at that. The visitors discovered that they didn’t need to bypass a defensive unit they could simply amble through.

The first goal came after five minutes, with Teddington caught in possession in defensive midfield. The second came five minutes later, when a ball in from the right bobbled past several static home players to a much livelier striker who finished past Ruby with the outside of her right foot. The third was another simple through-ball past a Teddington team by now resembling a Greek pantheon of statues. The fourth was a penalty after Carla, under pressure from her own team’s goal-kick, was adjudged to have fouled the attacker in the area.

Teddington had collapsed like a cheap deckchair, conceding four in 12 minutes to a merry Maidenhead team who couldn’t quite believe the extent to which their opponents had simply melted away.

At 5-2 up, the visitors eased off somewhat, and so did the rain. Boz came back on for Sadie, who had replaced her at half-time but struggled with a combination of illness and disappearing team-mates. Macca, too, made way for Bash while not quite believing what had happened while she was out there. It can’t all be Jelly’s fault for turning up when the team was winning 2-1.

With six minutes to go, Teddington pulled a goal back when Boz hammered a fierce right-footer into top corner from an acute angle. It had come about by pressing hard and high then finding each other well – Em, Liz and Boz linking well and working the triangles.

It made the scoreline look a little less ugly and could have been the springboard for a spirited comeback, but three minutes later it was 6-3 as Maidenhead simply ambled through the defence. The right-sider walked – not danced, not sprinted – past four or five half-hearted attempts at tackles before finding the striker to plant past Ruby.

And so Teddington equalled their own record for the heaviest concession in the team’s history, equalling the half-dozen shipped to AFC Wimbledon back in their first season and Abbey on the opening day of 2015/16. It could have been worse: on separate occasions, Sas and Carla had each darted around the back of their defensive partners to eventually snuff out dangerous runs from the visitors, while Ruby had pulled off a couple of second-half saves.

Maidenhead are a decent team, a nice bunch of girls managed by a good man, but they’re far from world-beaters: there’s no specific player to fear, or undefendable pattern of play. After being largely closed out in the first half, they were notably stronger after the break: Pat had them in for two months of preseason training, and their superior fitness told in the second half as they eased past a heavy-legged home team – several of whom didn’t look like they had done much about their manager’s pleas to work on their endurance over summer by going on regular runs.

Fitness might have helped, but so might mental strength. There was much post-match talk among the coaches of formations and personnel, but while Player X might have done better in Position Y, no starting tactic or star-studded squad could possibly matter when players are allowed to walk through five or six static players – and then allowed to do it again, lesson unlearned.

Teddington have come a long way, and are playing arguably their best attacking football despite having lost two of their all-time top goalscorers. But all that can be undermined by a lack of discipline and desire among the defensive unit – which includes the midfielders and goalkeeper. Before the next fixture, a cup game against Milford Pumas for which the coaches will scrape together whatever players aren't away on holiday, Teddington face a fortnight of examining the past and planning for the future. Up next after Milford are Abbey Rangers and Wimbledon.

TEDDINGTON ATHLETIC Ruby Rudkin, Carla Novakovic, Hannah Hutchison, Millie Theobald, Saskia Brewster, Amy Hallett, Liz Kriebel, Ella Bothamley (1), Emily Coulson (1), Emily Bashford, Ella Dodd (1). Subs Millie MacEacharn, Sadie Day

Bondy's notes from Maidenhead

Your motivation belongs to yourself. When a coach is motivating players that coach is just giving a little extra. Good players are already motivated. The coach is just an extra source of supportive motivation. If a coach has to motivate you fully the coach then becomes more than an extra source.

Its about yourself. You can not wait for people to motivate you or do the work for you. You have to find it in yourself. What ever it is. Do it. It belongs to you.

You analyse your performance in practice and on game day. Most importantly be honest with yourself. Don't be afraid to tell yourself “I gave it my best,” but some times you need to admit you could have done more. Find a way; seek advice on HOW WHY WHEN WHERE you could have given that extra. Don't wait for people to praise you or criticise you. Be The Best You Can. Say to yourself everyday: I am the best; I will work hard to be better than the best; I will become greater.

The right people around you will give you the little extra source of motivation. By choosing the right people you are already motivated and have taken responsibility.

As a coach I’m always analysing my performance – Did they learn? Are they better players leaving practice than when they arrived? Do they have a better understanding? I look at how, what, where and why I could develop. The better a coach I become, the better I can develop the players I coach.

I'm often asked ‘What motivates you as a coach?”. The answer is to be given the opportunity to develop young people to become better footballers, and in some cases better people. My desire to coach players and teach life skills is seen in the pride I take in each session. The biggest advice I can give is: love what you do, take pride in what you do. If you can do that you will become motivated. Could be a work of art, a project, homework. Take pride and enjoy doing it.

The Game: 
A perfect first-half performance but we must admit and learn that the second half was not good enough. On Friday we will work hard and put Sunday's second half behind us. I know one thing is for sure: the players will be determined to put things right. I am super excited for our next game at home, the place of the beautiful game,  a cup tie and with a point to prove I’m sure that we will be back at our best.

– Bondy

Sun 9 Oct: AFC Wimbledon (A) L 2-5

“Baseball was an art, but to excel at it you had to become a machine. It didn’t matter how beautifully you performed sometimes, what you did on your best day, how many spectacular plays you made. You weren’t a painter or a writer – you didn’t work in private and discard your mistakes, and it wasn’t just your masterpieces that counted. What mattered, as for any machine, was repeatability. Moments of inspiration were nothing compared to elimination of error.”

Thus does Chad Harbach’s 2011 book The Art of Fielding describe a truth about high-level sport: creativity can count for nothing if undone by losses of concentration. Rory McIlroy could sink a 60-foot putt up and over a ridge but he’ll be no better off if he shanks the next drive into the rough. Lewis Hamilton may be able to overtake through a gap that others don’t even see, but if his mind wanders on the next bend he’ll be embedded in the wall.

Teddington Athletic’s U15 Girls aren’t at that level of sporting endeavour, but they learnt the lesson anyway against an AFC Wimbledon team who have now scored 30+ goals in five straight victories.

And yet… this wasn’t like the five-goal defeat Teddington suffered at the same ground 364 days previously. If that abject 5-0 humiliation prompted some soul-searching, this 5-2 loss should provoke mixed feelings: sadness at the goals conceded, determination to eliminate those mistakes, and genuine pride at some of the football they played.

Teddington didn’t just shine in patches: on the balance of play, of chances created, they can feel somewhat irritated not to have won. While Wimbledon scored with their first five efforts on target, their goalkeeper made six saves in the first half alone.

None of which is to castigate Ruby Rudkin. The affable goalkeeper would freely admit she has lots to learn, having only converted to the position 18 months ago while some of her opposite numbers in this elite league have been in gloves since they were in nappies.

No, defending is a collective responsibility sometimes undermined by individual errors. Teddington discovered that slips will be ruthlessly punished by good teams, even if Wimbledon might have been delighted by how things panned out.

The same couldn't be said for the visitors. The coaches had warned that the leaders’ main goal threats came from corners and from not defending the centre of the goal 25 yards out. Teddington promptly conceded one of each within the first eight minutes.

The opener came within 30 seconds when a tackle was bottled in midfield and the opponent given time to pick out what was admittedly an excellent shot. The sickening second was turned in at the near post from an unchallenged flag kick. The coaches despaired.

What made it initially harder to swallow, if later easier to digest, was that the visitors could have been 2-1 up before going 2-0 down. If Wimbledon’s attack was troubling Teddington’s defence, the same applied at the other end.

In the fourth minute a ball dinked over the Dons defence caused confusion between the home goalkeeper and a centre-back desperate to shepherd it back. Bristling forward Ella Dodd didn't stand on ceremony, grabbing the ball and dragging it just wide of the left-hand post.

A minute later Doddsy was involved again, at the heart of an intricate move down the right. Increasingly keen to learn and diligent in training, Ella Bothamley approached this game against her former team full of determination and danger; here, driving directly at a back-pedalling left-back, she hit the by-line and pulled back for Doddsy, who laid off for Liz to fire just wide.

The concession of the second goal didn’t stop Teddington, and Boz in particular. By now confident she had the beating of the left-back, she branched out by driving inwards and wriggling away from a crowd of three opponents before hitting a shot toward the top corner which the goalkeeper was happy to push wide for a corner.

Still Teddington came. Even when Doddsy fluffed her flick-on, Boz collected the ball anyway and fed the centre-forward; she set up the onrushing Liz for a first-time shot which was again saved by the goalkeeper. Linking the attack together, Doddsy then laid off yet another Boz cross for Giulia Clini to shoot just wide from 15 yards.

But if Teddington were effervescent, Wimbledon were efficient, and in the 15th minute they scored their third goal with their third effort on target. Again, it was a move to make coaches tear their hair out: a simple diagonal through a missing midfield, two strikers played onside by a dozing defence and a goalkeeper stuck to her line meant the Dons striker had the freedom of the area to pick her spot and make it 3-0.

That somewhat deflated Teddington; in the next 10 minutes, the only visiting effort of note was a Liz effort from way downtown that got stuck in a tree.

And then it was four. Sent back from impressing up front to help her defence at corners, Doddsy won’t be proud of her attempted header; closing her eyes, she was beaten by a much smaller opponent whose back-header flew past the helpless Ruby. Four accurate attempts, four goals.

With Wimbledon scenting blood, Teddington might have crumbled, and it’s to their credit that they didn’t. Liz dispossessed a defender on the right and fed Doddsy for another accurate shot, requiring another save. Boz toasted the left-back again to win another corner, from which the visitors finally got some reward, just before the half-hour: Liz’s accurate cross tucked in on the volley by Emily Coulson for her fifth of the season.

Teddington rang the changes at the back. After impressing at centre-back last week, Amy Hallett had only been rotated out for the returning Millie Theobald because the timing of the kick-off had meant she’d been up since 5.30am to cram in her horse-riding; on she trotted for Millie.

Meanwhile, Anna Kauffmann was replaced at right-back by a slightly surprised Emily Bashford, previously only used in attacking positions – but her combination of pace and physical fearlessness helped quell Wimbledon’s left-sided threat for the rest of the half.

While the defence settled down, the attack continued to threaten, chiefly through the buzzing Boz. A minute after the goal, the winger toasted her left-back and pulled back for Doddsy to fire Teddington’s fifth shot on target – saved again. A minute before the break, Boz was once more the provider and the goalkeeper once more the denier as a teasing right-wing cross produced shots from Ale Fairn (on for Doddsy) and Carla Novakovic before the goalkeeper bravely smothered.

When the second half finally began – after a short pause while dedicated linesman Andy Kriebel shuffled back from the snack bar with his coffee and burger – Teddington had another new defender. With Boz rested to the bench and Bash pushed forward in her place, Millie MacEacharn added another string to her bow with a composed performance at right-back. It’s a position she had never previously played, even if she had previously covered for Saskia Brewster at left-back, but Macca never complains, always gives her best – and increasingly gives her coaches options in various positions.

Sadly, within two minutes she was watching the ball disappear into the Teddington net for a fifth and final time – albeit not through her own fault. Lackadaisical from their own goal-kick and slower than their hosts to react, Teddington virtually presented the forward with a free shot. Five accurate attempts, 5-1.

Quieter after the break, Teddington lacked a little thrust but not desire. Shoulder-to-shoulder with a physical right-back, Emily left her opponent in a heap on the left before Bash – never one to fear physicality – battled back to harass the defender in the other side. Captain Carla was everywhere, snapping away by the right-wing corner flag to set up Giulia for a volley well saved. And a minute after that, Ale battled in down the inside-left channel to force a seventh save from the Dons goalkeeper.

On the hour, Ale and Giulia were replaced by Doddsy and Boz, with Bash switching left and Em operating more centrally. Teddington’s front four now re-incorporated the three girls who came from the bench to score at Palace last week, but it was the fourth member of the attack who was causing the most problems.

It’s been noted before that Bash has the raw materials to make a brilliant striker: stunning pace, utter fearlessness, bags of stamina. Here she simply beavered her way toward goal, terrifying back-pedalling defenders; unlike with many pacy wingers, even if they can catch her they have a tough job to dispossess a determined character who has never feared physical confrontation.

What Bash lacks, by her own admission, is the expertise granted by experience – and here she finished her amazing goalward run by firing just over. But she’s getting better all the time, and she’s very willing to learn; in Friday’s shooting session for the attackers she was bagging with increasing regularity and confidence, and in the postmatch discussion she was quick to request more sessions. Those will help her get the muscle-memory to finish in a variety of ways, remembering Bob Paisley’s famous advice to strikers: "If you're in the penalty area and don't know what to do with the ball, put it in the net and we'll discuss the options later."

Also learning a (relatively) new trade is Ruby. Many goalkeepers would have been disheartened by conceding five without having a decent chance to make a save, but not Rubes, who pulled off a stunning save with six minutes to go, denying the Dons striker with a superb reaction stop down to her left.

That would have made the scoreline a howlingly unfair 6-1, but a minute later it was 5-2 – better, if still somewhat unrepresentative. It came from the spot after Doddsy was upended in the area, Liz quickly putting her hand up to take the kick then hammering it past the goalkeeper. No chance of an eighth save from that howitzer.

Unlike last year at Wimbledon, the discussions after the whistle – 10 minutes with the girls, then an hour among the coaches – weren’t a post-match post-mortem. Teddington produced much to admire, with clever attacking team play and plenty of hard work. The areas to improve are equally obvious: not just in training (where they can expect to be working on corners, heading and shooting) but in their concentration and attitude.

Twice the visitors talked the talk at pitchside before ambling on and presenting their opponents with simple chances. It’s a shame for the girls when their creativity is rendered redundant by the sort of avoidable errors that top sports stars learn to avoid. With Maidenhead – fresh from putting six past Fleet to go second in the league – up next, hopefully it’s a lesson that will be learned quickly.

TEDDINGTON ATHLETIC Ruby Rudkin, Anna Kauffmann, Hannah Hutchison, Millie Theobald, Saskia Brewster, Liz Kriebel (1p), Carla Novakovic, Ella Bothamley, Giulia Clini, Emily Coulson (1), Ella Dodd. Subs Ale Fairn, Emily Bashford, Millie MacEacharn, Amy Hallett.

Bondy's notes from Wimbledon

You can tell a lot about a person’s character, not by the mistakes he/she has made, by how he/she has handled those mistakes – Lou Holtz

I’ve been there before, as a coach at Walnut, California. You spend all week at soccer practice studying your opponents with classroom work and on the training ground, making sure every bit of information and preparation is used to give your side the best possible chance of success on game day.

Come gameday you go through all the key elements, you say your last few words. What could possibly go wrong? Thirty seconds into the game, you’re 1-0 down from your own kick-off.  One of my favourite philosophies is that players are people before they are players and we make mistakes. The players proved their character on Sunday.

Character
To go a goal behind so early on can really damage a team’s confidence, but NOT OUR GIRLS. They knew they had done wrong conceding a goal so soon after we spoke about how not to concede a goal with shots from long range with the quality that AFC Wimbledon can produce.

Displaying character we started to play football Boz breezing pass the left-back getting to the byline and putting excellent balls into the box. We were looking good and creating chance after chance, and if anything could have gone 2-1 up – but after all that we find ourselves 2-0 down. Our character showed again: we went back at our opponents creating more chances. We went into half time 4-1 down, but on chances it could have been 4-4.

Second half
We know we had a huge task if we were going to get anything out of the game. The first goal was important: if we could score first and make it 4-2 it was game on. We didn’t, and two minutes after the restart we conceded.

But once again that BIG CHARACTER our girls have was tested. Most teams would have given in and the score then gets embarrassing. We upped the tempo and started to press, making runs in behind – Doddsy and Ale getting on the ball; Bash, Emily, Boz getting their second wind and taking on players; Carla and Liz linking up with Guilia; Hannah, Amy, Millie T and Anna winning big tackles; Sas and Millie Mac getting forward from full-back; Ruby making brilliant saves.

We were playing some of the best football we've played this season and our reward we won a penalty that Liz brilliantly said ‘I’m taking it'. In my opinion, you chose players who want to take a pen, regardless of their position: from 12 yards out it’s all about holding your nerves. If a player is willing to step up and wants to take a pen, fantastic.

Game of two halves
The first half was 4-1, the second half 1-1. That goes to show the willingness to keep going, keep strong, keep playing hard. Not once in that game did we give in. We might not have been at our best in parts but we never gave in: we were relentless.

Maidenhead
Sunday is another hard game – our opponents are a good team with quality. We have extremely talented quality players in our team, 16 girls who will not give in and can play in many positions. We put Sunday behind us, learn and show this week that we are as good as I know we are. I have every confidence our players.

– Bondy

Sun 2 Oct: Crystal Palace (A) W 4-0

Having won the league by a country mile last season – collecting 60 points from a possible 63, they finished 14 points clear of runners-up Wimbledon – Crystal Palace Reds have decamped to a different league this season. Their sister team Crystal Palace Blues have stayed, dropped the colour from the end of their name… and failed to fulfil any of their first three fixtures. That’s a great shame for their likeable manager Matt Corry, but at least the Palace girls got a match this weekend against Teddington.

Although the game was played in an affable manner, the visitors were in no mood for charity, with several players looking to make the most of their chance. The starting front three were champing at the bit to take their chance: centre-forward Ale Fairn was making her first start of the season, flanked by Sadie Day and Millie MacEacharn, getting their just reward for excellence in training sessions.

With Millie Theobald away – the only absentee in a 15-strong matchday squad, which also meant her dad wasn’t on hand to take the photos – the ever-dependable Amy Hallett continued to display her remarkable versatility and footballing brain by slotting in at centre-back. As ever, Amy was exemplary and her reading of the game fully contributed to the resultant clean sheet. With Teddington otherwise unchanged, a strong bench of Ella, Ella, Emily and Emily – AKA Doddsy, Boz, Bash and Couls – awaited their turn; all would be involved, and all would have a major say in the game.

The starters soon set about their hosts, creating chances they were almost too polite to take. Firstly, Liz Kriebel and Giulia Clini didn’t so much get in each other’s way as mutually abdicate responsibility for shooting, allowing a surprised Palace defender to nip in and clear her lines.

Then Giulia wriggled past a couple of players and was brought down right on the forward edge of the box. While Palace players hung back, perhaps thinking it was a penalty, Teddington calmly waited for them to file back into position before Giulia lifted the shot towards the top corner; the goalkeeper’s parry was met by Ale, but she could only scoop the ball over the bar. (She later admitted “I can’t believe I missed that,” but if she keeps working hard, she will get more chances to add to her 25 Teddington goals.)

Some match action (I never said I was David Bailey)

Although the visitors were firmly in control, Palace did start to threaten on occasion: one run down the left ended in a cross acrobatically cleared from the six-yard box by Carla Novakovic, with Amy ably assisting.

But most of the action was up the other end. In the 11th minute Sadie put her body on the line to dispossess a defender and force the goalkeeper into a save, the winger suffering a blow to the hip which would eventually curtail her afternoon.

Even when they seemed somewhat shot-shy, Teddington were creating. In command of the No.10 zone despite feeling under the weather, Giulia had the ability to terrify the defence but sometimes sought the long route round; drifting rather than driving, she fed Liz wide on the right in what might have been a blind alley until a brilliant double-touch skill from the American left the full-back for dead. A superbly accurate cross to the back post found Macca, whose technically excellent shot on the half-volley was well saved by a goalkeeper.

On 19 minutes, the ailing Giulia and limping Sadie were replaced by a pair of Emilys, Couls and Bash – and the two were immediately involved in a goal. Sent haring down the inside-right channel by an excellent through-ball, Em C eventually won the foot-race and confidently finished past the goalkeeper into the far side of the net. That was pleasing for Em, who had been politely disappointed to be “benched” with her grandparents watching – but she didn’t hang about once she joined the fray.

Enjoying the freedom afforded to the free position behind the striker, Em turned inside a defender on the left-hand corner of the box and tried a snapshot which worried the goalkeeper; she also roamed down the right and sent a looping cross toward Ale, who fired just wide of the near post. And the centre-forward was quickly back in the action, meatily meeting Bash’s cross with a solid header which found its way back to Bash, who again found Ale for a shot well saved.

Doddsy, awaiting the call to action

That was about the end of it for Ale, who had jarred her problematic back in the course of duty and made way for Doddsy with five minutes to go. By then Emily was causing Palace all sorts of trouble: first reaching a great ball over the top from Liz, nicking it past the onrushing goalkeeper and watching it hit the post; then turning provider with a diagonal for Bash to outmuscle the defender and shoot first-time, only for the goalkeeper to save it again.

At half-time, Bash switched to the left as Boz came on for Macca, and within two minutes the pair combined well to create the second goal. The home side can count themselves unlucky that they lost possession in midfield when the ball bounced unkindly off a Palace heel, but from there it was all Teddington technical solidity. Bash swooped on the loose ball and swept it wide to Boz, who laid through an excellent ball for Em C to calmly finish. It was her 50th TAFC goal, putting her just two behind the all-time club top scorer Phoebe Head, whose record must surely tumble soon.

From there Teddington controlled the second half; on the one occasion Palace broke through the visitors’ backline, the underemployed goalkeeper Ruby Rudkin was alertly off her line to worry the striker and negate the danger.

Shortly after that isolated threat, the visitors sealed the victory with their third goal just before the hour. Em C won the ball in midfield and bowled a vertical between defenders, Boz outmuscling Palace to lash past the goalkeeper. Something of a milestone for Boz, too: her 10th for the club takes her level with Ella Waldron and past the opponents who have combined to provide nine own-goals.

Within five minutes, 3-0 became 4-0 with what wasn’t exactly a memorable goal, but they all count. Something of an up-and-under caused all manner of fun in the Palace box – Boz almost forced it home with her face, which presumably wasn’t quite the plan, before Doddsy stopped the nonsense by hammering home from seven yards. Again, it was a landmark for the centre-forward, her 20th for the club; she’s started the season in promising form and if she throws her weight around a bit more up front, she may very quickly get to 30 and beyond.

By now, Giulia had recovered enough to be kicking a ball around on the sidelines, so she was given the last 16 minutes to do something rather more productive, Bash making way and Em C reverting to the left. And Giulia almost made it five late on, forcing the goalkeeper into a sprawling save after being set up intelligently by the alert Boz.

For all the goals – and milestones – it’s a team game, and the girls at the back can take credit for competently keeping their second clean sheet in three games, eliminating the concentration errors that had cost them against Fleet.

Throughout the game, Anna Kauffmann dug back well with her left-wing foe; Hannah Hutchison comfortably dealt with any trouble in the middle (and confidently sent a few free-kicks into the danger zone); and Saskia Brewster kept the right-winger quieter than a church mouse with laryngitis. And on the one occasion the flanker got past her, after 69 frustrating minutes, across zoomed Amy to brilliantly cover her mate and remove the danger.

The team’s youngest player, Amy has represented Teddington excellently as a centre-forward, winger, midfielder, holding midfielder, full-back and now centre-back. The latter was probably only as a stop-gap but it is to her enormous credit that she neither complains nor struggles when given a new position.

Like several of her flexible friends, Amy is given different roles by her trusting coaches, who want to equip their girls with the ability to play in various positions. Some sides simply place the big girls at the back and tell them to hoof it forward to the quick girls at the front. That’s not the way with Teddington, who want to give their players a lifelong skill-set rather than capitalise on fleeting physical superiority.

It’s a pleasant byproduct of that when players can simply slot into different roles. With six minutes to go, Amy felt a twinge in her ankle and was withdrawn; her place in the back-line was taken by Carla, another who has played in every outfield position, with Macca coming on for some experience in the holding role.

The girls may need that flexibility and diligence in their next fixture. Averaging north of six goals per game, AFC Wimbledon are five points clear of Teddington. For that gap to be reduced will require diligent defence, incisive attack and a whole load of hard work. It’s to Teddington’s credit that it’s a viable possibility.

TEDDINGTON ATHLETIC Ruby Rudkin, Anna Kauffmann, Hannah Hutchison, Amy Hallett, Saskia Brewster, Liz Kriebel, Carla Novakovic, Sadie Day, Giulia Clini, Millie MacEacharn, Ale Fairn. Subs Emily Coulson (2), Emily Bashford, Ella Dodd (1), Ella Bothamley (1).