The better side won. Sadly, that was Spalding but Cambridge South put up a fight.

As so often this season, the fourth team defence played well, but were ultimately only able to keep out 90% of the attacks and short corners. Man of the Match Matt Gower in goal was brilliant, flinging himself around to block shot after shot… and that was only the ones that got through the defensive ramparts. Alan Radford was the pick of them, taking blows to many parts of his body in the cause of duty. He was ably supported by Ky Ho, Andy Thomas and Ian Evans, the latter making one of the saves of the game, deflecting the ball away from a certain goal. Allegedly he used his foot to do so. Minor detail.

Spalding grabbed an early goal after initial pressure from South went unrewarded. This dented our confidence, which was further eroded by a successful penalty flick before half time. We were unable to get the ball out of our own half for long periods as Spalding turned the screws, although Phil Harvey was at the centre of the action, twisting and turning to get away from tacklers time after time. We did have occasional chances, with Phil himself going close and Laurie Ho, too.

The second half was more even. Spalding did do most of the attacking but could only snatch one further goal, from a well worked short corner routine and an unstoppable reverse stick effort. There was some encouragement for Cambridge South whenever we managed to move the ball at pace, passing early to people in space… a novel approach which resulted in more chances. Skipper John Greaves delivered his quota of crosses and through balls, some of which found a man in purple, but it was not enough. All the midfield had their moments: a majestic Shahzad line-shaving upfield ball, some surging Simon Jelley runs, and incisive passes from Laurie Ho and Wilco Dijkstra, to name a few. A deserved consolation almost arrived with a Shahbaz Ali-special flick into the top corner from a short corner, but somehow the keeper got a finger tip to it.

Ah well. I can recommend The Crown pub though. A fine cottage pie and excellent beer.