The first game after Christmas brought the end of Cambridge South M2s’ recent run of good results and, frankly, good form. Competing with second-placed Spalding would always be a big ask, which was clear from the very beginning of the game, with the visitors starting the more energetic and dangerous. Solid defending, however, saw South ride out the initial storm and start their own forays into Spalding’s defence. Admittedly, Spalding managed to put two goals past the home side, but those were mostly due to individual lapses of concentration; at half-time, South was very much still in the game.

And then it all went wrong. If books were written about this story, they’d be quite short. Nightmares would be rather gentle. The film seriously boring. Despite starting the second half strongly and sorting out some issues in defence, somehow South found itself completely outplayed for 30 minutes. Individual heroic acts may have stopped the score line from being even uglier and put some pressure on the visitors’ goalie, but as a whole the team just wasn’t here.

No permanent damage was done to South’s campaign for staying in Div3, but we cannot afford many more performances like this; some hard work must be put in to shake the Christmas cobwebs out of our heads and get the team back on track again.