Coming off the back of a 7-0 win away to Ely, Cambridge South Men’s 1^st had somehow managed to retain their form during the Christmas break. This combined with a committed performance against Bourne Deeping had catapulted South into promotion territory. Sitting in second place on goal difference, the pressure was on to solidify our hold on the table and close the gap between us and league leaders, Cambridge Nomads 1.

With the game against Louth 1 approaching fast, everyone was feeling the pressure; memories of the 3-3 away fixture still resonated in the changing room. With the team selected and dynamic attacking moves building from midfield practised during training, the team felt ready. But wait! Could the weather thwart our rise to table top triumph? Met Office propaganda and fear-mongering of a frosty cold-snap put the team literally on the edge of their seats on Friday night – fearing the worst.

Thankfully, it was only a bit windy on match day and the game wasn’t called off. Mark “Let’s move to the Cambridge South Groove” Williams started with a rousing team talk – keep doing what we’ve been doing/winning-streak/apply what we’ve learnt in practice – were all mentioned to great approval. Then what every hockey player wants to hear five minutes before push-back – “Also we’re going to play a new formation.” This was clearly thrown in there to test our performance and adaptability under pressure, a bit like the 11+ or Michael Gove’s A* grades, and separate the good from the great. Sadly for Mark there are no good players in Cambridge South 1s, only great players who comfortably slotted into the attacking formation.

South started well putting Louth under huge amounts of pressure with repeated decisive runs from Pearson and Hockley just failing to connect with well-timed through balls from midfield dynamo Craig Spencer. Eventually a well worked series of passes led to Craig slotting one home taking us 1-0 ahead. Tom Cosford took time out from maiming younger members of the opposition with overly ambitious aerials (we really hope the injured lad recovers quickly!) to score the second and give South a margin of safety going into half-time. As that whistle approached though, our intensity dropped off and we conceded a goal to Louth’s fairly relentless attacks.

The second half saw Cosford do what he does best and drive home a hard strike into the bottom corner from a penalty corner. As the teams tired, the play became more end to end, with Trollman throwing at least three, maybe even four (depending on who’s counting) aerials every minute and Craig, Pearson, Ta and Cosford all driving forward as a cohesive unit. But a unit that wasn’t quite able to penetrate a well-drilled Louth back line until that is, Craig Spencer bought the score 4-1. Paresh attempted to replicate Trollman’s high ball into the D, but whilst well above Paresh’s head, this flew through at chest height for the rest of the team and came to nothing.

Lough scored a great second goal, their striker somehow beautifully controlling a lifted ball into the D, turning on a sixpence and slipping the ball past a bemused Steve Parker.

The score ended 4-2 with a convincing win to Cambridge South and that second place position looking safe for another week! Man of the Match goes to Craig Spencer for being ‘a constant menace’. Of note, Dave Aston did also get a sympathy vote for MoTM but ultimately ended up with Lemon of the Day for taking a lie down midway through a penalty corner. There’s a time and place for those antics!

On to Spalding!