Lessons to be learned:

1. Don't over-do your celebration
2. Don't assume your oppo will wear their home kit at home, when you have a colour clash
3. Don't touch a ball that was hit outside your D and is not touched by anyone inside the D unless you're sure you can put your stick/boot through it

South 4s turned up nice and early at Ely to find themselves blinded by the low sun sinking over the Fens and Ely's away kit prompting the question 'What part of our home kit clashes with this clubs colours again?". However, it was South who ended up making the early running and took the lead within minutes of the start of the game. Phil Harvey collected the ball and fired it wide to Boris who cut to the baseline and pulled the perfect ball across the D for Nathan M to tap in for his first league goal of the season. 1-0 South.

It was to be the start of something good and promising as South relentlessly poured forward and applied concerted pressure on Ely. Several good chances came and went without a second goal being registered, before Ely struck a fortuitous goal against the run of play. A ball was worked around the top of the D by the Ely midfield before a shot found its way through the South defence via Shahzads kickers.

South had plenty of subs and made good use of them to keep things fresh, but remaining solid and organised despite the rolling changes. One such change nearly paid off as the skipper bought himself on and promptly started to pull the Ely defence left and right and finding spaces to receive the ball and set up several attacks that unfortunately largely petered out or flashed dangerously wide. The best chance saw a through-ball played up to the captain with his back to goal. Flicking the ball around the last defender and bearing down on goal, the initial shot was blocked. Trying to keep out of the way of the on-rushing keeper and the inevitable clearing kick, the skipper slipped and landed just where the clearance was placed and received a blow to the chin that would have left lesser men reeling.

So, 1-1 at the break and South full of confidence that the game was there for the taking. However, something had obviously been said in the Ely team talk as they continued to weather the South attacks and then in a 10 minute blitz managed to strike twice. The Fenlanders had been blooding several youngsters and suddenly they clicked, overloaded us on the right hand side and managed to work an opening to take the lead, before repeating the trick minutes later. The second was something of a comedy of errors as the daisy-cutter shot evaded Shahzad, and several defenders on the line who somehow failed to get rid. Even Ely were slightly shocked as some wag called 'Make sure it hits the backboard next time.'

It nearly got worse as a third attack followed a similar pattern and when the shot caught a defender's foot a flick was awarded. The skipper called a quick conflab to sort out the side while Shahzad stared down the Ely attacker taking the flick who sent the flick high, wide and not so handsomely into the fence to the left of the South post. Battle was rejoined and South proceeded to apply near relentless pressure on the Ely goal trying to find a way back into the game. Several chances came and went but shots going wide (John/Wilco), deflected onto the post and side netting (Simon) and shorts breaking down left South fearing the worse.

South thought they had clawed a goald back when following a long corner, John G fired a peach of a ball across the D for the captain to get the deftest of flicks past the Ely keeper. With a blood curdling roar, the South skipper wheeled away in celebration only to find the neither umpire had seen it and the Ely defence suggesting an over exbuerant celebration to be ungentlemanly and suspect. 3-1 it stayed and despite several more attacks, South failed to find another way through and that's how it remained to the final whistle.

All in all, a good tight game that slipped away from us in the 10 minute spell where Ely put two (nearly three) past us without reply. It was good to see a large squad turn out again for a match for the 4s and with some luck and some perserverance, the first points cant be far away. St Ives next weekend would be a good start.