League Plate defeat was definitely one for us to forget says Leeds United Women’s captain Catherine Hamill

I could probably say the same for the second goal, as well.

My Leeds United Women team-mates and I are all in agreement that we all had a bad day in the office this weekend.

From start to finish, our performance was below standard – I don’t think I can remember the last time we played so poorly. We couldn’t get the basics right, weren’t defending properly, were lacking in desire and despite feeling like we had plenty of the ball, we never looked as dangerous as Alnwick on the attack.

You can’t help wondering why. The past few weeks at training have been excellent, and none of us woke up on Sunday morning and decided that we were going to play badly that day – I remember feeling really up for it, like we are for every game.

Nothing was different from usual.

It just happens like that sometimes, I suppose, but, while I do understand that teams can’t be at their best week in week out, I didn’t know it was possible to have that much of an off-day!

It might take a few days to get over this one.

I tend to be quite dramatic after a poor performance and think, ‘that’s it for me now, that’s all I’m capable of!’ I felt embarrassed and, on the way home, I just kept myself to myself, staring out of the coach window into darkness!

It didn’t help that Alnwick is so far to travel. We left at nine and didn’t get back until seven – it’s a long way to go to give a weak performance.

As away days go, it wasn’t all bad. On the way up, we had this huge 50-question quiz sprung on us.

It was good fun in the end; Abbie Brown and I aced Friends trivia, I got to show off my knowledge about the Berlin Wall and our team ended up coming second.

It’s just a bit of a shame that the team quiz had to be the highlight of our five-hour round trip, rather than the game.

My first thought when I woke up on Monday morning was I’d love to get out there and play Alnwick straight away, and show how I can play on a good day – luckily we’ll get our chance to host them in the league soon enough.

Now if there’s one positive to take from Sunday, it’s that at least we didn’t put in a performance like that in the league. Though it would have been nice to progress in the Plate, the league is our top priority.

It will be strange going back to Division One North fixtures next week – we haven’t played one since October. Hopefully we can get a win to lift the mood a bit after Sunday’s disappointment.

We’ll be taking on Chorley at our home ground, Tadcaster Albion on Sunday January 30, with kick-off set for 2pm.