After last weeks disappointment at St Neots, South M5s had an immediate opportunity to put things right against another team in the nether reaches of Div 6NWS - Ely City 4s. Games are traditionally close between us as the bottom teams of each club are pretty evenly matched. Added to the fact that over the past few seasons, the second weekend in November usually heralded the "start" of our league program by bringing our first points of the season, the omens looked good - could the boys produce an early birthday present for the skipper?

With the luxury of a couple of substitutes, South started very brightly and attacked from the off. A swift and slick move saw the ball fed from pushback from the skipper to Phil Harvey, who took the ball forward past a couple of Ely sticks and fed the ball to James M on the right. Showing his marker a clean pair of heels, James took off like a whippet up the flank before slipping the ball inside to Andy on the edge of the D, who's first time slap shot bought the first save from the visiting keeper within barely a minute of the game starting.

That proved to be pretty much the pattern of the first half. What few attacks Ely had were quickly snuffed out if not in midfield than before the attack could breach the circle and swift counter-attacks were launched. Balls were collected centrally and good distribution to the flanks saw South work the ball around the back and into good positions for a number of shots to be whistled past either post or to be smothered and smuggled away by the 'keeper and his defence. The closest South came to a breakthrough in the first half was a snap shot from the skipper that evaded the 'keepers outstretched boot, slammed into the post and bounced kindly for a defender to swat out to the sideline to safety before anyone else could react.

So, the sides turned round 0-0 at half time and to this point Rob's only meaningful contribution in our goal was to follow Joe's helpful instruction from the sidelines to attempt to "log out" while defending a short corner. No one was sure if it was the cold and inactivity or the bulkiness of the kit but he went down so slowly it looked like he was getting ready to sleep through the rest of the game. The fact that it appeared to put Ely off their stride and fluff the short and the reliability of Mr A Thomas to provide a more lemon worthy incident later in the game, seemed to save Rob from nomination in the pub afterwards.

The second half restarted with South a man light after Phil's back gave up on him, but still with one substitute to ease the aching legs where required. South were immediately on the attack again and trying to apply the pressure that would surely result in that first goal. Several good opportunities were spurned before the breakthrough arrived. A counter attack was launched after an Ely move was broken up by Douglas and Ian at the back. The ball went wide right to Howard then forward to Steve who played some neat one-twos with James M to beat their men before slipping the ball inside to James B who was lurking on the left hand side of the D. Jinking inside his man, he fed the ball into the D for the skipper to take a first time snap shot across the 'keepers pads and into the far corner. 1-0 South and the relief was audible.

Ely responded well to the goal and started to push forward more in search of an equaliser. Souths legs were tiring, but the defending and marking was no less resolute than throughout the first half of the game. Several shorts were won and defended well, with good clearances finding South in a strong position to counter. Unfortunately, the most we seemed to achieve was to win a couple of shorts of our own, although one of these was to lead to the award of this weeks Lemon of the Match.

Our first short corner was won and the skipper organised a quick conflab to organise positions. He would inject to James B, James M was to run far post, Andy to run on keeper, with a backup and further running set. The skipper retrieved the ball and set himself. Checking the positions, he saw Andy standing on the wrong side of James and thus distracted procedded to send in what could only be described as a dribblerof a ball that was struggling to make it across the D. Never one to miss an opportunity, Andy pounced on the ball in a flash, took a touch and wound up to unleash a thunderbolt in the direction of the goal; all well and good, but when the ball had not come within 5m of leaving the D and he showed no intention of trying to take it backwards, the inevitable whistle blew to his annoyance and the general amusement of the South attack. Lemon duly nominated, seconded, thirded, fourthed, fifthed and then carried unanimously and awarded for the second week in a row.

Subsequent shorts were much better organised and a couple came close to giving South a second and although it didnt come directly, it led to the build up for our second. The short went straight to James who steadied himself and fired a shot towards the left hand post, which the skipper attempted to flick past the keeper but was flicked away to give a long corner. James went across to take the set piece and worked the ball around to fire a ball across the D, that was deftly touched in at the back post by Owen. 2-0 South

All that remained was for South to see of the remaining time and shut down the match. More opportunities to increase the lead came and went, and with the defence remaining steadfast, the final whistle blew and the M5s repaired to the Red Bull to reflect on their maiden win, coupled with a maiden clean sheet and look forward to next weeks trip to St Ives. The season starts here!