Things looked promising from the outset as possibly our strongest side of the season was assembled. For one of the few times this season it bore a resemblance to the squads we had been fielding when earning promotion to this league last season. There was also, count ‘em, 12 of us so we had some sort of option if people were whacked on the knee and needed a few minutes to recover. Or were too hungover/possibly still drunk.

Peterborough came out of the traps fast and pressed us deep into our own half for the opening five minutes. But some properly organised defending meant no clear chances were created and also restricted the number of half chances. We finally broke out and mounted some attacks of our own, and the match looked like it had settled into a nice, even pattern.

Peterborough took the lead from their first short, some neat skills at the top of the circle creating a shooting opportunity, which was emphatically taken. Peterborough would consider it neatly done, but some of our defending was rather statuesque. Lino took command for all future shorts, clearly deciding if he couldn’t rely on his defence to close down shots, he had better do it himself. A number of dangerous situations would be snuffed out during the course of the game by him.

Falling behind early was obviously disappointing, but it didn’t seem to knock the team’s confidence. We were creating good attacking opportunities and it needed key last man tackles from the Peterborough defence on a number of occasions to stop us getting clean through (some might argue we were taking it too close to players and allowing these last man cut-outs). The Peterborough goalie even got in on the act, getting the end of his stick on the ball to deflect away as Tom, in behind the last man for once, attempted to round him.

Our lively play was rewarded with a goal towards the end of the half. It was a slightly scrappy affair that began with JT, in the left back zone, firing a free hit up to Dave on the 25, who slipped Ali in on his right. Ali’s original shot was saved, but the rebound fell back to him. His second attempt, a flick, squeezed past the keeper and hit the inside of the post, dribbling across the face of goal. Matt was first to the rebound to bundle home on his reverse stick.

We caught a break in the final action of the opening half, as the whistle blew just as a Peterborough pass in from the 25 was making its way through our circle. This was rather lucky as the ball was blocked and the rebound landed on a plate for an unmarked Peterborough forward, who would surely have scored if the half had still been going.

Our start to the second period was positive, and we soon had two clear opportunities to take the lead as Tom and Dave combined. First Tom’s dribble and pass found Dave posted up near the penalty spot. He tried to hit a shot on the turn, but put it wide of the right post. Then, a couple of minutes later, a mazy dribble from Tom finished with a shot that the keeper pushed towards the touchline, but also to where Dave was lurking. He collected and shot, but dragged his sweep finish, this time putting it wide of the left post! Dave’s time would come, however.

Both teams were probing away after this, looking to break the deadlock. It would be us who did, with a nice zig-zag move from a short. JT injected, Matt took it from the top of the circle and slipped right to Ali, who passed across the face of goal back to injector JT, who swept into the unguarded net. 2-1 felt a narrow lead in this match, but it didn’t stay that way for long as we doubled our advantage straight away. Peterborough took the push back and passed it back to their pivot, who looked around to spread the play. Tom moved up to put pressure on, and managed to mug him of possession. The circle was open for Tom to advance into and he did so down the left channel, drawing the scrambling defence and keeper towards him. However Tom spurned the shot, instead squaring to Ali, up in support in the right channel, who was able to sweep just beyond the keeper's despairing dive.

Fans of irrelevant stats will be intrigued to know this was the first time this season that we have led by two goals. And it was soon 4-1, i.e. three ahead. This goal originated from a long corner, taken by JT. He performed some yard sticks to move the ball the required 5m, and then drag-swept the ball at the keeper. Ali made good ground to get across the front of the goalie and deflect the ball past him and across the face, where Dave was waiting to gleefully sweep into the open goal.

The remaining time saw Peterborough throwing bodies forwards as they attempted to avoid the ignominy of losing to the division’s bottom side (that would be us, even if most of the games were a fairly different ‘us’ from today). Their pressure told when we weren’t able to get the ball clear of our circle following a goalmouth scramble, and a shot from high up in the circle went through a crowd of players and into the bottom corner.

Another goal with time to spare might have sparked panic stations in our defence, so when Peterborough did find the net for a third time, with a neat first time shot by their forward, taken with his back to goal, there was a sinking feeling. However, there was basically no time to play, the final whistle blowing within seconds of us taking the push-back.