Another game, another friendly. As the M4's long wait to their season opener goes on, the final warm up game saw us make an early start of it against Saffron Walden 6s down at the Leys. A crisp, sunny morning was greeted with enthusiasm as the squad composition led to VC Lossey suggesting an experimental 4-3-3 line up to make full use of the three forwards present. It seemed to work well early on, with some good movement pulling the suspect looking SW defence this way and that and creating some gaps that were showing good promise.

It wasn't a huge surprise when South took the lead. The ball was skilfully worked out to the right to debutant Nathan who, in turn fed the ball to Boris. Dragging three defenders wide between them, a sharp ball was whipped into the D for Captain Marvel to receive with his back to goal. Trapping and turning in one flowing motion, he made a beeline for the near post before sending a shot across the keepers pads and into the far corner to open his account for the new season and attempt to claw back some ground on Barton.

So 1-0 to South, and the foot came off the gas slightly as the unfamiliar formation also started to take its toll in midfield. SW started to exploit the gaps left in the midfield and then decided to try and make life hard for the forward line by targetting the Chairman's ankle. It was later claimed in the pub that several members of the defence had no idea he was down as there had been 'no screaming or rolling around' but with John taking a short break, the Monckasaurus was deployed from the bench (after locating the contents of his kit bag), Ian E was pushed forward to create a four man midfield and the traditional 4-4-2 was resumed along with a near stranglehold on the game for the majority of the first half time that remained.

Alas, it was too good to be true and after suddenly finding both the Captain and VC on the sidelines, the equaliser came. Rectifying the mistake by slotting the captain back into midfield for Ian E, some balance was restored but then on the stroke of half-time another short was awarded against South, was duly dispatched, and the half closed with South 2-1 down.

Battle was rejoined and South came flying out of the traps determined to take the game by the scruff of the neck again. It wasn't long before the tactical switch pushing newcomer Ed B forward to the left wing from right back paid off. Collecting an outlet ball from the back, Ed pushed forward exchanging passes with Boris to run rings around the static defence before Boris played in the fully recovered John Greaves to flash a shot across the SW keeper and bring the scores level 2-2.

Another short corner saw SW regain the lead against the run of play, but in a sure sign of some determination and resiliance that will stand the team in good stead for the season to come, the lead lasted mere seconds. From the restart, the ball was sent back to the Monckasaurus who unleashed a trademark crackerjack through the entire SW team to an unmarked (and vocal) Boris to collect, jink past the last remaining defender, before coolly waiting for the keeper to go to ground before teasing the SW team with a reverse stick daisy-cutter to bring South back to 3-3.

From there, we should have at least seen the game out, we even had chances to win it; but silly mistakes and some frankly disgraceful behaviour from the captain depositing his toys (and stick) across the pitch, saw South lose their cool and two quick goals in succession to further short corners. Still, the results that matter come in the league games and from the friendlies played we've surely found our strengths to utilise, weaknesses to work on removing and plenty of optimism for the season ahead. Bring it on!