Buoyed by the recent scalps of Spalding and Horncastle, it was a carefree and confident Second XI that rolled into St Ives this Saturday morning. Chris Walsh was very much to the fore in the early tub-thumping, which was rather odd given that we haven’t seen him for a month. He was making an early and concerted attempt on this week’s Lemon award, also proclaiming that he never reads our match reports online and then producing some nail clippers to begin his vigorous pre-match male-grooming routine. Alas, he was to be beaten to that particular crown by Pawson, who generously sported the most ridiculous of headbands that his Grandmother had hurriedly created from a threadbare, floral pillow-case earlier in the week.

Wary that perhaps St Ives had found videos of our last couple of impressive performances and planned their tactics accordingly, Cooper had a couple of special rabbits up his strategic hat. Rosselli in the forward line? With Shin and James Menzies? We’d already had Dom gallivanting around up top for the whole season – how many anti-strikers was it possible to play?

Any doubters were quickly silenced as the new-look front-line took to their task with relish. One observer was heard to liken their performance to that of the Leicester City forwards of the 1990s, with Rosselli doing a decent impression of a ginger Heskey, Shin bearing a striking resemblance to the waspish Paul Dickov and James bringing back memories of Claridge at his crafty best. To co-ordinate that nostalgia was no mean feat, but Nelson was playing the haphazard curator role with aplomb - think Ben Stiller in Night at the Museum.

It was all very pleasing on the eye in the opening moments, but where were the goals? Kazam! Have a bit of that! Dom (twice) and Walsh pushed and flicked us into a commanding position.

It would be a mistake to look at the final scoreline and think that the game was completely one-sided, however. South had their issues at the back, with Anns displaying the positional sense of an inner-city teenager on his first Duke of Edinburgh (Bronze Award) expedition and Cooper limiting his passing range exclusively to the opposition’s attackers. There can’t be many 7-1s in which the victor’s goalkeeper is well in the running for Man of the Match.

We had squandered a healthy lead in the reverse fixture, so a further cushion was much appreciated. A splendid dart from Menzies was ably swatted home by Rosselli, before newish-James bagged his own goal. The oppo didn’t give up though and pegged a goal back after a post-shortie scramble. They then earned a penalty stroke, courtesy of a lifted ball aimed at Dodson’s vital organs but Jason again earned his corn with a neat save low to his left.

Back down the other end we thrust, with both Matson and Edge proving useful outlets down their respective flanks. A low drag from Shin and a decent biff from Doddie (both from short corners) sealed the win and re-established our healthy advantage.

With the match won, thoughts turned to the rugby and we sped over to the clubhouse for a quick navel shower before settling down in front of the box. As next week is our post-mid-winter break, we return to action on the 28^th February, hosting those jolly chaps from Peterborough.