Our last match of 2013 brought a well earned point for the 5’s against a skilled St Neots team who had beaten us 3-0 in our first league match of the season.

The first half was played at high pace in a real end-to-end thriller, ensuring that Ron and late call up umpire Jack were dashing around the pitch (mostly in the vacuum that was midfield!)

St Neots had the best of the forays into the D over the half but these were ably dealt with by the South defence led by Douglas, who also made some Maradona-esque breaks into the opposition half (not the last reference to football for South…).

South also attacked well, with some slick passing around the opposition players, using triangles and set squares from our midfield during the half. During one such slick move, James M crossed the ball into the top of the D where John D was loitering with intent…the ball came perfectly to him and he crashed his shot home past the keeper into the bottom corner, with a resounding thud. 1-0 South!

At half-time, Simon’s team talk highlighted that the pitch had two sides as well as a middle and we were allowed to use all of it if we chose to. This inspired the team to play with more structure in the second half, with Jelley and John D showing good skill intercepting sixteens allowing South a relatively quiet time at the back at the start of the half.

However, in the latter stages, St Neots piled on the pressure and Rob was called upon to make a series of ‘nuclear strikes’ (as labelled by Ron) which successfully wiped out all in his path: ball (first), opposition players, South players, the goal…

St Neots during this time had a series of short corners. David B made a good block on the line. St Neots had a goal disallowed due to forgetting to take the ball out of the D and then, with six minutes to go, John S blocked a short on the line football-style resulting in a penalty flick. The opposition took the flick low to Rob’s right. He made a diving save and then lost the ball, which trickled VERY slowly over the line. 1-1.

The final few minutes were played hard by both sides, who were going for that win. South created some good chances, but were unable to convert. Final score 1-1; a fair result and a well-earned point after a good team performance.

Thanks to Jack for stepping in to umpire at the last minute because of Tom South’s man-flu which rendered him unable to play or umpire but had miraculously improved by 7pm in time for the Christmas festivities!