South 3rds made their return to Division 5NW after last season’s sabbatical in 6NW(s) as they welcomed Bourne Deeping 3rds to the Abbey. Confidence was high after hitting double figures in both pre-season friendlies, although there was a niggling doubt about the playing level of our opposition in both those matches.

Those doubts were quickly confirmed. Bourne Deeping 3rds are their clubs youth development side, following the common lads-and-dads set-up of four adults dropping down from higher levels in key positions down the spine of the team, with teenagers operating off them. They were well drilled in defence and in moving the ball around. It arguably took South a whole half to come to terms with the work they needed to do in midfield and defence to beat a team of this standard.

That said, South, despite seeing less of the ball than Bourne Deeping in the opening hlaf, did carve out the majority of the chances. David hit the post twice, first when he swept Rob's cross against the far post, and then late in the half when a deflection off a defenders stick saw the ball spin in slow motion onto the other post. David also had a chance from a short corner, directing his shot towards the far post as per the routine, only for the post-man to be awol from his task of making the goal big, so the ball flashed wide. Stu, up from right back, also had a chance when he found himself unmarked in front of the net, but he couldn’t quite get a stick on the cross.

In amongst all this, the visitors took the lead. A pacy dribble from midfield carried the ball into the South circle. The initial shot was saved by Parky, but the rebound fell to one of the Bourne Deeping midfielders coming up in the second wave, and he cracked a crisp shot into the far corner. They had another chance when South’s substitutions lead to mass confusion and numerous players unmarked (this wasn’t the only time such a thing would happen), but fortunately Parky bailed us out on that occasion, so the sides turned around with Bourne Deeping 1-0 up.

South began to assert themselves in the second half, support runners offering themselves and less direct passing finding them, as we gradually pressed the play higher and higher up the pitch. The equaliser came in the aftermath of a short corner. The initial routine was smothered by the Bourne Deeping defence, who then brought the ball out of their 25, only for Matt to tackle the player carrying it clear. Matt was then able to thread a ball through the advancing defenders to pick out Rupert, who had found an unmarked spot in the circle. When Rupert had controlled the ball and turned, he found himself with two options; shoot or pass square to the skipper. Opting against passing in such a situation is not necessarily an error, but it does come with a caveat; if you choose to ignore your skipper, you had better bloody score. Rupert did so, beating the ‘keeper with a flicked shot inside his near post side.

We were 2-1 up soon after; the move began with a sideline hit on halfway on the right-hand side. The ball was switched across the pitch through the defence and then up to Jelley to Ali, in acres of space on the left. Ali drove into the circle, the ball running loose to Rupert, who worked himself a little bit of space and flicked the ball goalwards. It wasn’t the paciest shot ever hit, but what it lacked in speed it made up for in bobble as two despairing defending sticks missed the bouncing bomb.

South continued to look the more likely scorers, with Rob going close when he rounded the ‘keeper, only for his shot to be cleared off the line. So it was little surprise when the lead was extended to 3-1. It came in the aftermath of another short corner (which didn’t really work today, we need to practice them more, I think). Johnny B’s initial shot was well saved by the ‘keeper, and a defender tried to whack it clear. The ball was airborne, and was pulled down spectacularly on the reverse stick (by someone sorry, I’ve forgotten who!). Rob took the loose ball, and went for ‘Barton Goal type 2.1, with Pike’, onto the reverse, hard sweep into the far corner, land on his arse. Beautiful (the goal, not the arse).

With five minutes left, that should have been that. But, seemingly believing the job was done, South switched off from the restart. Once again, as with the first half substitutions, people were unsure where their man was. Rather than going to the nearest free man and working out the marking structure once the opposition formation was clear, we stood around gormlessly marking no-one whatsoever. Bourne Deeping made three or four simple passes, which carved us open with embarrassing ease, culminating in an unmarked player on the far post turning the ball into an open goal. I’m sure they regard it as a well worked goal, but we did nothing to impede them scoring it. With that, panic set in. The last five minutes saw Bourne Deeping laying siege to the South 25, with the ball being won by the defence and then quickly lost again as we struggled to clear our lines. The final whistle came as a relief.

So, finally, we should mention ‘the record’, i.e. the club record for consecutive wins. The M2 held this for their storming run in spring 2011, winning 11 on the spin as they gained promotion from Division 4NW. Well now, the last time the M3’s collected something other than three points from a league game was 26/11/11. From then on, it was 10 consecutive league wins to claim the Division 6NW(s) title. There were also a couple of friendly match victories thrown in (do they count?). Having won both our pre-season matches this term (no, really, why don’t they count? I sure the M2s would be including the September 2011 friendlies in their run, if not for the irritating 2-5 final scorelines... ;-) ), we went into today’s match on either 10 or 14 consecutive wins. Which is now 11 or 15, depending on your persuasion. Victory in the derby match next Saturday against Nomads 3rds, and the arguments cease. Nomads, derby and a record to chase. We won’t lack for motivation chez Abbey next Saturday.