They say it’s tough at the top: it’s tougher somewhere near the bottom.

The day didn’t start well. With Vice-Captain Lossy already unavailable, Captain Greaves was struck down with ANOTHER case of man-flu (does he need more Lemon…?) By virtue of being the team member living the closest to the skipper, Ian M was saddled with picking up the kit – and the captain’s arm-band.

Long Sutton arrived looking young and fresh, despite their trip from Up North, and very green. Turning their shirts inside out had the double advantage of making them appear distinctive from the South players, and also anonymous, with their numbers cunningly hidden on the inside.

However this cannot be used as an excuse for the fact that they were a tad quicker and more assured on the ball than a lot of the home team, probably buoyed by a 9-0 win the previous week.

South did make a fair few forays into the opposition’s final third but not usually in sufficient numbers or with crisp enough passing to really trouble the defence. Tim C was making some promising runs that were then snuffed out,  Shahbaz fired a shot against the post and we had one penalty corner that Tim came close to turning in. Sutton, however, were pouring forward with more purpose and scored three times in the first half. Having said that, the goals were fairly soft – well placed but seemed to take an age to cross the line.

South came out with more purpose in the second half and probably had at least 50% of the possession. Jim Sipthorp was tearing around winning the ball on numerous occasions before putting it to good use, aided by Wilco and Ian M in the midfield. Jelley and Owen were providing an outlet on the wings and the back line was looking solid with Ky, Nick G and Howard on the flanks keeping up with the whipper snappers they were marking, and James and MOM Alan as solid as ever in the middle. Shahzad was not being given an awful lot to do.

However as the game went on we were pushing up field more and more, and got caught twice on the break, allowing another two goals. South did win a penalty stroke, with which Shahbaz hit the top right corner with pinpoint accuracy – unfortunately this was the corner of the posts rather than the net.

This summed up an afternoon of things not quite going our way, despite the usual battling to the end. The game was played in good spirits, even though Owen was shown a green card for hacking down an opponent’s stick with his own, so thanks must go to umpires Coops and Lino for helping provide an enjoyable afternoon’s hockey, despite the final scoreline.