The opening sixty seconds gave a preview of roughly how this match would go for South 3rds. Having weathered a dangerous looking March attack, the ball was cleared upfield. It was the March keeper's ball but in two moments of proper slapstick he barely connected with his kick and then fell over, presenting Simon with an entirely unguarded net. However rather than rolling it in, Simon miscontrolled, dribbled a bit and eventually found himself mugged by a defender scrambling back.

Opportunities wasted and hanging on to the ball far, far too long would continue throughout the game. March took the lead fairly early on and when they did it had already been coming, as Lino had been called upon a few times already by that point. One soon became two as an attempt to force a clearance through the March midfield foundered, leading to an overload and a simple finish.

Two-nil down saw us finally begin to play hockey, passing around the strong March tacklers rather than trying to beat them one-on-one. This gave us circle penetrations and a goal back when Will had a shot saved and Simon bundled home the rebound at the far post. The better play continued a couple of minutes later as we levelled; JT made a good pick up at pace to burst through the March midfield. He put it into the circle, Simon played it to the back post into a slightly uncomfortable spot for Tom, which he adapted to well by diving to reach the reverse sweep tap-in.

OK, now we were going to play, right? Wrong. Or more like that ignores the visitors' own ambitions. They forced us back agai, and induced a goalmouth scramble, during which the ball popped up very high off a South stick. Sticks went up for it as it dropped, and one of these clumped Neil in the head, forcing him to join the growing band of South players to have spent Saturday afternoon in Addenbrookes this season (they must be getting sick of the sight of us!). He even found L1s' skipper, Lou C, already waiting in the queue when he arrived! Play resumed with a short (it was lifted dangerously off one of our sticks, remember?) and a defensive misalignment presented an inviting corner of the net, which the March forward gratefully pushed the ball into.

The second half saw us trying to recover again and we did have our chances, mostly notably when a ball across from the left caught the March keeper on his near post whilst the ball found its way to Joe at the far. Control and tap in to the gaping net, right? Not quite, as the trap wasn’t solid and the push was on the stretch, the ball skewing wide.

We paid for the missed opportunities in the final five minutes when the defence allowed a ball to travel all the way across the circle to the waiting centre-forward, who again was entirely solid in his connection. The final score was 4-2 and, with two essentially open goals missed, you might think the M3s were unlucky to lose? Wrong. March were deserved winners. They had better structure, organisation and skill. But most crucially, they clearly wanted it more than us. Our team as a collective ‘Must Do Better’.