Experience had youth’s number as South 3rds put a mostly teenaged Wisbech 4th team to the sword.

Going through the goals one by one could lead to a litany of x passed to y, y scored, so let’s concentrate on the more notable/key incidents. The opening goal is worth a mention, as it was nicely worked; Joe intercepted an attempted clearance outside the circle and returned it with pace and accuracy towards Rob, who neatly deflected home.

Goal four came about because of the Monckasaurus’s quick thinking. We were awarded a free around thirty-five yards out, wide right. Instead of pausing to catch his breath, Dave’s take was instant, firing towards Framps in the circle. Simon's attempt to bring the ball under control diverted it nicely to Nathan for a far-post tap-in. OK, so there was some fortune. Framps definitely wasn’t intending to set Nathan up, but we scored because we had two men free in the opposition circle, and the reason we had those was Dave’s sharpness of thought and deed. Belies the claims that dinosaurs were dim-witted.

We weren’t always making perfect decisions though. When the score still stood at 1-0, Rob worked himself onto his reverse and swept at goal. The ball was making a beeline for the near corner until deflected wide - by James! He said he was trying to deflect home, obviously not realising that Rob’s reverse stick sweeps don’t need such assistance.

The half-time talk focused on making use of the wings rather than going through the experienced and strong sticks in the centre of the Wisbech defence. This was put into practice in seconds, as Tim burst down the right wing, and then pulled the ball back for Rob at the top of the circle. He checked reverse and, despite the keeper getting something on the ball, found the net. The good things about this goal were two-fold:- i) the use of the flanks and ii) Tim pulling the ball back to a player high in the circle. All too often we have tunnel vision in such situations and drive/cross the ball straight at goal, aiming for team mates two or three yards out, which is a position where they are all too easily crowded out. The space tends to be high, and we should trust each other to be able to finish from fifteen yards as well as five, as Tim did here.

This less direct equals more effective plan was again put into practice for the seventh, as James made a tackle, committed the last man and then picked out Rob who had posted up in the channel. Rob's shot slipped past the keeper and would certainly have been gone in, but that didn't stop Framps adding the gloss from a range of 50cm. Grand larceny! And the second time in the afternoon that Rob had been denied a goal on the line by a team mate. He would eventually complete his hat trick with our last goal of the game, a straight strike for a short that was aimed away from both the keeper and any thieving colleagues.

Soon after came an incident where we didn’t score, but that will live on in the memory. It involved Neil, the umpires and an outbreak of unaccountable honesty in (some of) the South ranks. Neil was involved in a battle just outside the Wisbech 25 when the ball thumped off his foot. Most of the people at the match had a clear view of this, but unfortunately two hadn’t; both umpires! So, play on, right? Well no, because Neil’s teammates were informing the umps of the offence they had missed, with Joe putting his foot on the ball to make sure Wisbech got their ‘deserved’ free [a choice, see below, he now appears to be recanting]. Neil and umpire Naomi were less than impressed by this.

Wisbech attempted to clear up field from the free, but it was cut out and fed to Nathan in the circle. He put the ball under the keeper, only to be taken out before he could get to the ball for the tap in. Penalty flick. Unfortunately this put all the South players, other than taker Framps, in close proximity to a still fuming Neil. He explained [n.b. sanitised version, there may be kids reading this] that it was a league game, and that umpires will make mistakes, they are only human. These will balance out, but only if they are left to get on with it! His teammates' counter was that we were beating a team of kids seven-nil, they had no subs and some of them had already gone down with cramp. The result was not in doubt, so maybe the eyeballs out aggression could be eased off a notch? Barely noticed amongst all this intellectual thrust and parry was Framps having his flicked save. Whose turn is it next?

The best goal of the game was the eighth. James turned the ball over in midfield and broke forwards, carrying it fifty yards. His pass arrived at Nathan slightly awkwardly behind him, but Nath made an excellent pick-up to take the ball without breaking stride, wrong-footing the Wisbech backline. He rounded the keeper and then, with an open net but also a rapidly narrowing angle, threaded the needle beautifully with a precise reverse stick sweep. That gave Nathan his hat trick which, along with winning the flick and general excellent play, earned him Man-of-the-Match honours.

This game marks the halfway point of the season, so time to take stock. We sit fourth in the table with 20 points from a 6-2-3 44-17 record. The target for promotion is second spot, which is currently occupied by City 5ths, who are 6 points ahead of us. Obviously we would need some help from others to catch them, as well as making sure we collect as many points as possible ourselves. This task continues next week with a 4th vs 3rd clash as we take on Spalding 4ths. The sides drew 2-2 in our meeting on the season’s opening day. All to play for.

Thanks to Naomi and Jack for umpiring.