South 3rds debuted the clubs new purple/navy/purple colour scheme, beating the L2s to the punch by thirty minutes, as we faced Bury M3s for an early morning run-around in the park. The match was played in an excellent spirit, baring a certain uncouthness by the hosts as they took advantage of South’s early defensive sleepiness, using suspiciously practised moves, like players interchanging position, to forge a two goal lead.

We played some nice stuff of our own at times, particularly when players got their head up on receiving the ball to make the simple passes; Ahmed on the left and Jack (aka Pay-and-Play Jack) on the right were offering constant width, so moves were always possible. We got one back towards the end of the opening period through such a move; the ball started deep on the left side with Ed, he went back to Neil, who squared to Douglas, in space and central. Doug flicked hard into the circle, Jack got a deflection on the ball, a defender also got a nick and the keeper was beaten.

Bury soon restored their two goal advantage as a loose ball was seized on and finished but we were back in the game again on the stroke of half-time. Rob was upended as he headed towards the circle, a short was awarded and the culprit green carded [which means two minutes on the sidelines this season, kids]. The inject came to the Monckosauras who roared and stamped his foot/crunched a straight strike into the bottom corner.

Bury came out hard at the start of the second period, but it was us who were next to strike, and did so in a very similar manner to the second. Inject to Dave, he winds up, ball smacks the backboard. Our shorts success continued with a variation, Dave slipping the ball left to Rob, who squeezed a (front-stick) strike into a tiny gap between the keeper and his near post. We had recovered to lead 4-3!

Having turned the match on its head, it was key to hold the advantage for a while. We managed about 30 seconds… Bury attacked from the push-back and worked a man free to shoot from the top of the circle. Shahzad had seemingly pushed the ball just over the top corner of his net, but a Bury kid appeared on the byline and somehow fished the ball out of the sky, leaving him a tap-in at the post. Brilliant skill, but our focus has to be on the defensive lapses in the preceding move. There was time for one more goal, and it went to Bury. A ball across the circle got through a number of South sticks, and was scuffed goalwards where it trickled agonisingly slowly under a wrong-footed Shahzad and in.

Overall a good work out with some patches of the type of hockey we want to see regularly. If we maintain a similar short corner success rate in the season proper, we will be fine. Also not having given away a short in the match is good. Just need to work on the ‘concede five goals from open play’ bit!