Following a week of intense logistical planning, Simon had a plan for transport that involved rotating half of the passengers for the trips to and from Peterborough, so that some could go and support the M1s in their bid for the division championship, some could make it to Middlesborough, and some could get their double sausage/avoid us being fined for skipping teas.

Sadly, we could only field a bare eleven, and a skiing holiday left the defence with a hole, which was ably filled by Douglas. With no subs to manage this week, Oven showed great commitment in once more travelling to support the team, armed with crutches and a portable chair.

An 8.30am meet brought a slightly sleepy side to a wet and sandy Peterborough, with rumours of snow. We used our limited pre-match time to reacquaint ourselves with the fickle ball speed of the pitch and to remark on the presence of the young lad who no-one had wanted to tackle last time, leading to his looping reverse stick goal. The team talk saw manager Oven focusing on playing a good game and consolidation for next season against a team close behind us in the league.

The match started well, with South carving a few paths into the Peterborough half. We had a few near-chances, including one ball just past the far post in the first few minutes, but started to switch off and let the opposition play their own game for the next twenty. Somewhere during this time, Peterborough managed to switch the ball around the back, work it forward down the left wing, walk it into our D, and pass around Lino to open the scoring at 0-1.

This woke us back up and we started to play some nice flowing hockey to put the ball back into their D, where a body on the line saved a shot going in and gave South a flick. Their incensed keeper started screaming at his own players and squaring off against his defence. Deemed standard behaviour and with no abuse directed at the umpires, he managed to avoid a card. After the keeper had finally been silenced by his defence, Dom calmly stepped forward to take the flick. His raised shot into the side forced a surprisingly good stick save, leaving us stuck at 0-1.

We continued to hold the lion’s share of the possession to see out the half, and we broke for some rousing words from manager and captain alike, with the usual Tangfastic appearance. The second half started strongly, with link-up play down our flanks between Danny and Harry on the right, and Douglas and Jon on the left. We broke into the opposition D once more and a confused Peterborough keeper passed the ball to Lamming in front of the goal for a potential top-corner reverse strike, that was instead wisely clipped along the floor for several of their defenders to not-quite-stop and eventually roll to a halt in the corner. We were back in at 1-1.

The rest of the game played out well, with Kerny marshalling the midfield and forcing mistakes from the Peterborough players. We made good use of our back line, passing the ball back around Anns (who at one point found himself barrelled into by a speeding attacker) and Simon, though one particular clearance saw our captain’s standard outlet on to a centre forward’s stick. Once we’d cleared up and he’d assured us it was all out of his system, two more misfires in quick succession sadly made for a strong Lemon candidacy. Harry’s hooking of an opposition stick to fling it at an already-injured Oven on the sideline as he rode a bad tackle couldn’t quite match up.

We continued to break into the Peterborough D, with the ball switched round nicely between the inners and forwards, and Dan Loy’s cross-field runs pulling the defenders out of position. However, we could never quite find the back of the goal, with shots going wide and several good reverse-stick efforts from Dom on the P-spot just missing the post. We even had one saved on the line from their long-haired defender, who’d spent the match making good use of simple passes to eliminate our players.

The last few minutes were tense, as two short corners were awarded against us, forcing some good defensive play to keep them out. We kept closing their young attacker down to avoid a repeat of last time, and Lino was always on hand with some high saves if things went pear-shaped. On the whole, a slightly frustrating match, but we managed some patches of good passing hockey to build on for next week.