The last game before Christmas saw the L1s facing Wisbech in the group stages of the Cup on a balmy December morning at the Leys. With the men having a morning off, the really important business of ‘Foul Bingo’ was again fiercely contested on the sidelines by the team’s most hardcore of fans.

We started strongly, with our midfield and forward combinations putting the Wisbech defence under a lot of pressure and the ball pinging about all over the place in cross-field switches which made for some exciting plays. With the team working really hard for each other, there were some awesome passing moves. Just before half time, the pressure paid off. Beasley’s lightning dash from left midfield got behind the first line of defence, and the perfectly weighted pass found Dee in front of the keeper. Some slick stick work and an even slicker turn left the keeper helpless, and Dee put South ahead going into half time.

Wisbech came at us strongly in the second half, but the midfield and defence coped well under the pressure and successfully defended a series of penalty corners to keep the narrow lead. One penalty corner however proved too much and the scores were levelled. Late in the second half, an unavoidable foot on the line resulted in a penalty flick being awarded. Penfold, who deserves a special mention for taking one for the team (literally) and volunteering to go in goal with Loopy away for the weekend, stood up to the pressure and made an incredible save to keep us in the game. 1-1 was a fair result with a solid performance from South, especially in the first half, against a strong Wisbech team who are the current league leaders.