Apparently allowing the opposition a three goal head start is not conducive to winning a game. Who would have guessed that?

Long Sutton were finding acres of space straight down the centre of the pitch in the opening exchanges. This soon led to a deserved lead for the hosts. Our formation, which has worked well and been balanced so far this season, appeared to be heavily tilted to the attack on this occasion, which at least made us dangerous on the break, and our first serious attack forced a penalty corner. Dave’s shot hit a defensive foot on the line, leading to the first penalty flick of the day (and IIRC the first of the M3s' season, either for or against). Rob took responsibility and put it… wide. Blast.

If we had drawn level then it would have been against the run of play. The next two goals were not, as Long Sutton moved clear. Both came from shots that Lino saved, but the rebounds fell to Sutton forwards as our defence watched on with interest. As the third went in the Italian Stallion was throwing his stuff to the ground and shouting, “Can I have some help here?!?” Quite.

The level of work-rate needed was slowly beginning to dawn on us, and we started following our men rather than ball-watching which made it harder for Long Sutton to break through so easily. At the other end we were still creating chances (we looked dangerous going forward throughout), pulling one back before the interval when Rob and Nathan broke through à la St. Ives and didn’t bodge it up this time, Rob going round the keeper (on his strong stick side!) and putting his shot through the defenders on the goal line.

Talk at the interval was that we were not out of the game as our forwards had the beating of their defence. We could score enough to win, as long as we kept it tight at the back and were patient. Scoring the next goal was also felt vital. Midway through the half we had a golden opportunity as Rob again rounded the keeper but was then stick tackled as he lined up his shot. Another flick. Rob had been demoted following his miss, so up came Dave to take responsibility, which he did with aplomb.

So we were back in it. We just needed not to lose our heads by conceding a fourth immediately. Yeah, about that… Long Sutton attacked from the centre-pass, won a free hit on the edge of our circle, worked a crossing opportunity and deflected the ball in off a defenders foot. As everyone was trooping back to the halfway line disconsolately it became clear that the umps were not happy. Apparently a premature whistle had blown, and it was a penalty flick rather than a goal. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth we didn’t query the call, all eyes going to Lino instead. No dice. But then the flick taker was a skilled veteran who played national league at his peak, so the chances were always slim.

As time ticked down we pushed players forward, and got caught on the counter. Lino saved the initial shot but the ball dropped into the goalmouth where the forward's stick just beat Ed’s desperate lunge for the ball. It should have been all over being three down with less than ten minutes to play. However the team continued to fight and Rob soon brought it back to 3-5 with an impressive reverse stick effort from an extremely narrow angle.

On we pressed, winning a short which Dave powered home for 4-5. Time was not on our side though, as that came with less than 60 seconds to play. We did get the ball up to the Long Sutton 25 in the remaining time, but the attempted pass from there into the circle was cut out and our final chance of salvaging something from the day had gone.