Hockey can be a funny old game sometimes.

As no less than three debuts were handed out, you could have reasonably assumed that the first half performance might be a little disjointed. It was, however, anything but, as the crowd (ok, Cosford, and Steve’s Brother) witnessed a remarkable display of control, allied to a rare spot of flair.

With South able to manoeuvre the ball (and, by extension, the visitors from Wisbech) around the field almost at will throughout the opening 20 or so minutes, it was very much a surprise when the away side took the lead. Three separate defenders took large chunks of stick in a bid to stop the determined Wibsech forward, but to no avail as he pushed past a helplesss Parker in goal.

This can happen and to South’s credit, we were not put out of our stride; Chris Walsh getting back to the business of keeping things moving in the centre of the field. Several flowing moves went unrewarded before one passage of play saw the ball start in the left half channel and end up on the right hand side of the D. The keeper was able to get something in front of the first couple of efforts before Dom Nelson eventually bundled home.

Half-time was some 8 seconds away when Anns decided to thrust himself into a 50/50 in midfield. He’ll tell you that he won the ball, but it was something of a Pyrrhic victory – the Glaswegian kiss he inadvertently planted on the rear of the Wisbech player’s head opened a nasty cut above the left eye and he was removed groggily from the field.

The first five or ten minutes of the second half was easily the best period for the away side. They’d clearly been fired up in the interval and the South backline was adjusting to the enforced re-jig. By hook or by crook, the danger was averted and as Wisbech tired (and grew increasingly frustrated with various perceived injustices), goals suddenly became easier to come by.

Some good distribution from new faces Matt Styles and Craig Spencer meant that we were getting the ball forward with purpose, and there was no shortage of midfield and forward players willing to take advantage. Fellow new boy, Dave Millward, had found his range by this point, adding a couple from open play and two from penalty corners. Cramp had robbed Russell Johnson of his legs, so the previously hamstrung Shin Kim was called on for right wing duty. It was his fellow forwards that completed the scoring, however - Nelson sweeping in his second on the reverse and JT slapping in the final goal.