A hard-fought local derby, the captain's "most important game of the season" (sorry 2's), ended in victory for the mighty South. With a much-changed line-up and no substitutes compared to City's five subs, this looked like a challenging fixture. A 4-4-2 diamond formation was played for this one, with an unfamiliar central midfield pairing of Jon and Graham and a front pairing of Laurie and Dave H.

The game opened fairly evenly, with neither side really getting on top, but the first goal went to South mid-way through the 1st half. A scramble in the D lead to the ball rolling out to Rich C, arriving late in Paul Scholes-in-his-prime style, to slot past the defender on the line with the keeper nowhere.

A comic interlude was up next, with a tactical time-out / wind up the opposition moment generated by Chris G who was struggling to coordinate our marking of two City players both wearing number 5. As they helpfully pointed out, the shirts weren't the same colour (though you'd think they probably should have been), but this was too much for Chris to cope with and so the umpire was forced to call a halt to the match whilst City shirts were switched. City equalised soon after from a short corner making it 1-1 at the break.

South started the 2nd half strongly and almost immediately took the lead for the second time. The quality and finesse of the goal is entirely explained by the sumptuous illustration crafted by the hand of Jack Chalk (see below). No further explanation needed obviously, but some might describe it as a tap-in for Dave following a good run from Jack and cross from Dom. City then levelled again from a short corner.

However, South were not to be denied and a speedy run up the left from Rich forced a short corner off a defender's foot. Hawkes' shot caused all kind of mayhem (at least it might have) and the ball found its way to Graham for another tap-in. South saw out the match relatively comfortably and looked the stronger team in the second half, despite surely being exhausted towards the end due to the lack of subs (greater player availability expected next week...). Overall a good result without being at our best and a solid start to the season with two wins from two.