On a misty day, South surprised even themselves with a comfortable victory against fellow promotion hopefuls Rutland. Lino and Dave A had worked wonders to pull together a good team after the usual squad had been plundered by the 1s who called up 4 players for their Away match. Offsetting this however, was the arrival of the new team shirts (guaranteed to put a spring in our stride) together with Rutland turning up late and having to start the match with only 9 players.

So, resplendent in emerald green South started off in fine spirit and the pattern of the game was set from the push-back. Although South's play was patchy, when the team actually passed the ball and moved into space the Rutland defence were always under pressure. From the other side, the Rutland team clearly had a number of very skilled individual players but could not string together any team play to create chances. On the left of defence Ian Glover was more than a match for his opponent and in the centre Dave Monck (despite being tired after only 5 minutes of the game) was rarely troubled. The pairing of Nick Bristowe (sweeper) and Eliot Read (back of the diamond) worked supremely well to snuff out the Rutland playmakers in midfield and on the few occasions that Rutland were able to fashion an opening goalkeeper Ben Buckley pulled off some fantastic saves to shut them out.

South took advantage of their numerical superiority in the early stages, pushing forward with good moves up the right by George Wych and Kev Rowland supported well by Jack Chalk in the centre. One such move led to a short corner which, although the initial strike was blocked, found its way to Rob Barton to take a classic reverse stick goal.

Shortly after this, the remaining Rutland players arrived but South continued to have most of the chances and Rob was able to complete a fantastic hat-trick before half time. His second was a sharp effort, ghosting in behind the defence to deflect in a Tim Clapp cross and a few minutes later a howler from the Rutland defender who elected to self-pass on a 16 yard hit allowed him to nick the ball and apply a slide-rule finish to make it 3-0.

So South turned around with a good lead and surely captain Dave Aston would be delighted with this? Not a bit of it. Displaying a character trait that must concern his girlfriend, the more he was on top, the angrier Dave got - resulting in several tirades against surprised team-mates and reducing some of us almost to tears! Don't worry Dave, we know it's just because you care!

The 6 ages of Dave Aston
Ancestor		Baby		Youth		Maturity		Middle Age		Old Age

The game now entered a decisive phase. Rutland were not going to give up without a fight and pressed forward to win a series of short corners, one of which they converted with a strike deflected in by the man running in on the post. At this point, despite a 2 goal lead, the game could have gone either way. The next goal was very important and it went to South. Channelling his anger into creative hockey, Dave A made a great break up the left, bursting into the D and forcing another short corner. A crisp push-out from Tim Clapp was equally crisply converted by Nick to make it 4-1 and put the game beyond reach of the away side. The remainder of the match was largely played out in the Rutland half and in the final few minutes John Hawkes rounded off a great performance by scoring South's 5th goal, sliding in on his knees to chip a pass from Rob over the keeper's outstretched pads.The result puts South equal 3rd in Div 4 (5th on goal difference) and promotion still within reach, albeit requiring other results to go our way.