South's M4s turned up for a lunchtime game against the City of Peterborough Vets team looking forward to their penultimate game of the season. A goodly bunch of subs including James Mathews making his debut in the South midfeld and a rare (this season) run out for Jacon VDM saw South start with confidence in extending their unbeaten run of 4 games to 5. Eyeing up some of the opposition, the conclusion was that South would need to remember to play to their strengths; ball retention, good movement off the ball to allow some simple passing of the ball to retain possession and wear them down over the course of the game.

Right from the pushback, South immediately took the game to their opposition and spent pretty much the entire first quarter of the game camped in Peterboroughs half of the pitch. Some strong running from Tom R and Rasmus on the flanks providing width and allowing Wilco and Jacob to dominate the midfield. The defense were largely underemployed except to collect and mop up some panicky clearances and set up a fresh wave of attacks. When Peterborough started to work the ball forward more carefully, the wall provided by Dave and Charllie in the centre and Howard and David blocking and picking off runs/passes on the flanks, saw South looking very comfortable.

Boris had the first opportunity for South as a ball was worked around the midfield and dropped back to Dave who started playing higher up the pitch as Peterborough were hemmed in. Dave smashed the ball forward for the bearded vice skipper to fetch in the D. Boris got a reversed flick that went narrowly wide of the left hand post, but South's tails were definitely up. More chances were carved out as the half progressed, but nothing really troubling the keeper or defence as South struggled to find space to get the killer pass or shot away.

As the half drew to a close, Peterborough started to get into the game themselves and were finding themselves gettin further and further towards the South goal. It wasn't long before they started to create their own chances, but some stout defending and some good stops/saves from Shahzad kept them at bay. It seemed that no-one was going to create a truly clear cut chance as half-time approached, until the South skipper decided enough was enough. Collecting the ball on the 25 yard line from Jacob, Simon took on two defnders and jinked left and right to get into the D and make space for a shot. Breaking free and with Peterborough's handy sweeper No 5 desperately trying to close him down, he cracked a shot at the right hand post that couldnt beat the keeper and the rest of the half went by without further incident or anyone opening the scoring for either team.

After debating the formation of the opposition (the skipper suspected that a 6 man defence was being used owing to the lack of space/time available to South's forwards) and declaring that the game was there for the taking as older legs tired towards the end of the game, South came straight back out for the second half and looking keen to find that all important opening goal. Everything seemed to look good for South until a literal as well as metaphorical blow threatened to disrupt the gameplan when the Monckasaurus took a mighty blow to the hand that forced him out of the game. Reshuffling the defence, South had to adjust quickly before Peterborough realised what was going on and took advantage.

As it turned out, South coped better with the enforced change and after clearing the restarted ball quickly got organised and won a sideline ball near their 25. Spotting a lot of available space on that left hand side, the skipper encouraged a quick self take from Tom to make use of the space. Seizing the opportunity, Tom took off and carried the ball right up to the opposition 25, dancing and jinking past two or three Peterborough players before sliding the ball across to Boris who had dragged two defenders across to the right. Boris then took those players out of the game by pinging a first time ball into the D for John to chase. A first time shot was stopped by the keeper, but the South striker followed up and coolly tucked the loose ball away to put South 1-0 up.

This seemed to wake Peterborough up as they then started to exert more pressure on South and look for an equaliser. South's defence was standing firm though and the reshuffled back line were doing a terrific job of keeping the visitors at bay. However a series of short corners against South chipped away at our resolve until eventually despite several stops/blocks and last ditch tackles, the ball found its way through a crowd of players and the scores were level.

There were further chances for both sides and Peterborough did have another short corner strike ruled out, but both defences seemed to be winning their battles agaisnt the respective attacks. The final 10 minutes or so turned into a real end to end game as first one defence would set up a counter that would be foiled and instantly reversed by the other team, seemingly bypassing the midfield. None more so than when Charlie decided to keep bombing forward from the back to try and find that winning goal for South but all too soon, the final whistle came and both sides had to settle for their second 1-1 draw of the season.

All in all, a good game against experienced opposition and South did extend their run to 5 games unbeaten as they looked to finish their season strongly. The bottom of Div 6NWS looks like this:

with St Ives having completed their program, they're safe in 5th place. South take on Ely 4s on the 23rd, while St Neots play 2nd placed COP 8s and Bourne Deeping take on City 5s who have run away with the division with a 100% record and a GD of 113 - largely down to having not conceded a single goal at all - the battle for 6th is on!