South’s 2^nd XI recorded back to back wins for only the second time this season, thanks to a scrappy victory over an Alford side that have so far been rooted to the foot of Division 4NW.

The visitors may sit bottom of the table but they had been buoyed by their first success of the campaign the previous week and were certainly up for this game, snapping into tackles with gusto and generally being much more lively in the opening exchanges. Again blessed with a squad of fourteen, it took some time for us to get used to the regular chopping and changing and, whilst the fresh legs certainly helped us in the second period, there can be no denying that we did struggle for some continuity as combinations were rotated throughout the team.

A rare sparkle of decent hockey broke out after twenty or so minutes, resulting in a short corner that Shin flicked with a little loop to the keeper’s left. The latter stages of the half in fact belonged to our friends in the north, and there were further alarms even after Kern’s unfortunate own goal, but Lino’s goal remained unscathed and we retired for a Lucozade and the politest of hairdryers from Cooper.

‘Stretch the pitch when we have the ball’ was the headline; the thinking being that someone can’t hack you down if he is ten feet away. With space duly appearing in midfield, South were able to penetrate much more effectively. Bang bang bang! Goals arrived for Nelson (2) and Lamming, with Haslop and Tanner prominent in the build-up. With the points in the bag, there was an understandable relaxation and the last few minutes sort of petered out, punctured only by the ring-a-ding-ding of Laurie’s penalty stroke coming back off the post.

Next week is the acid test of our mini-revival, taking on the über-skilled granddads of City Vets. This, according to Anns, is The Biggest Game of the Season (as his Dad is playing for the oppo). He can’t make it though – he is at Twickenham.