A 4-2 defeat is not exactly the worst we have had this season, but finding the motivation for this report has been the hardest yet. A couple of recent results from 4NW give the context why:
16th Nov:  St. Neots II 1 – 10 Cambs Nomads II
23rd Nov:  Cambs Nomads II 1 -2 Cambridge South III
30th Nov:  Cambridge South III vs St Neots II
So, we should win this comfortably, right? Turns out that sport doesn’t work that way. Who knew...?

Our pre-match optimism initially appeared justified as we pressed St Neots back and were turning the ball over regularly. Belief was further stoked by taking an early lead when Jan’s quickly taken free hit caught the Saints defence still organising and found its way through to Rob at the top of the circle. He rolled round his marker (strong side) and shot across goal, the ball finding the far bottom corner, with possible aid from a deflection off a defensive stick.

We kept the pressure up and looked the team much more likely in the immediate aftermath of the opener. Indeed, it was all going promisingly until Saints centre-forward Danny Rowland got the ball for the first time. He burned past his markers, and then smoked a shot at goal. The shot went wide, but the manner of the attack upped our defence from Def Con 1 to Def Con 3, and also seemed to lift his teammates, the contest being much more even from that moment on.

With the Saints now getting upfield and into our circle, they begun to win short corners, and were level from one of these midway through the opening period. Again it was Rowland who was the prime danger, the inject going directly to him in his position at left slip, and from there he crashed a shot just inside the near post.

The match turned around at 1-1, with the next goal crucial. It came fairly soon in the half and went for the Saints, from another short. This time the initial shot was blocked but the rebound was collected and space found for a second shot, which was neatly deflected just in front of Lino to give him no chance.

The next key incident came when Mr Rowland saw fit to question an umpiring decision with added blasphemy and was dispatched for a little R-&-R. Playing ten men with our defence’s biggest headache off the field ought to have offered us the chance to get back into it. Instead it went the other way as the Saints won a short on the break, and converted it with a neat dribble round the runners and accurate reverse stick sweep into the bottom corner.

With the numbers back at 11-a-side, 3-1 soon became 4-1 as we conceded from open play, poor marking allowing a one-two along the right baseline, and a deflected shot spinning agonisingly one inch inside the post and three inches over the line before Johnny B could reach it.

The only further addition to the score came from us, with a nice clean short corner routine. Ali’s injection was accurate and quick, Stu’s stop was clean, allowing Tom C to flick classily into the top corner. As we headed back to halfway, the skipper was shouting “Three minutes left, this isn’t impossible, keep going.” We quickly found out he was wrong, as there were only three seconds to play, it was impossible, with the final whistle sounding just as St Neots were about to take centre.

Some pondering after the game about what the difference had been might focus on the short corner count. The Saints were probably pushing double figures across the game, whilst we only had three or four. Disappointingly, I don’t think circle penetrations were that different between the sides. They were good at upgrading to shorts, looking to do so if a shot wasn’t instantly on. We were anything but, often having the ball in the circle for seconds and trying to move around for space to shoot rather than putting it onto a foot to win the set piece. Which, given how clean our last minute goal was, was bad tactical play.

Oh, and as a final thing, a further note on the Lemon-of-the-Match award. Most days this is hard fought. Today the winner was clear just one second into the game. St Neots had objected to the white socks Ross was wearing just as we were about to get underway, saying they were too close to the Saints light blue. There was a hiatus whilst a spare green pair were tracked down. Rob concluded that the delay embarrassed us and he would make amends by deliberately playing the opening centre-pass directly to St Neots. His unilateral action prompted democracy into action in the pub afterwards, and Lemon status was conferred on him as a result.