After the rustiness that inevitably accompanied the opening games last weekend, if someone were to have asked where you’d like to play the following week with the same squad of massively reduced numbers and notable absentees, you’d be forgiven for the ‘1-player-short-of-full-strength’, currently unbeaten two-time defending champions in their own back yard not being top of your list.

Despite the obvious disadvantages we faced, there was still that childishly competitive side of each of us evident at training this week. The one that says; “Go on then. Bring it.”

Given our league positioning and being away from home, we’d have been underdogs at full-strength on Saturday. Take away our 5 Olympians and those odds lengthened quite considerably. Take away our coach and they lengthen still further.

It could have been easy to crumble under the lights and snow on Saturday night and I know it would have made a lot of people happy to see us do so. But the fact we pushed them to the very end showed the strength of our squad and character as a whole.

With one current international (standing between the sticks) we came so close to getting a result at the champions and we take real heart from that. The fact that we’re so frustrated at the end of the game and fervently believe that we didn’t have the ‘luck of the calls’ shows how far we’ve come in just one week from that Canterbury game.

Once again, it’s a process and the important thing to remember is that, as Wimbledon and ourselves proved last year, the Championship isn’t won in March, it’s won at the end of April.

The girls’ game being snowed off was massively frustrating. We were as close to full-strength as we have been all season and really looking forward to the chance to make amends for the chances that went begging against Canterbury last weekend.

With the slip-date due to be when all Great Britain International players will be away in South Africa, we won’t be as strong for the re-arranged game. Unfortunate timing.

Despite all of this, it’s another big week to come. The girls have a tough away trip to Clifton to deal with. It’s never an easy journey or place to play so ensuring a positive result will be a tough but vitally important ask.

Our matches don’t get any easier as we travel to Surbiton on Saturday night. A positive result will be huge to keep them at arms’ length for the final run-in of games.

There are bigger things at play than points throughout February. We’re collectively striving to improve and position ourselves well for the final push through March and into the Playoffs across both squads.

Trust the Process.