The M3s had a tough act to follow this week, as the game before had seen the L1s destroy Horncastle L1s 14-0. It never seemed remotely possibly that we would manage as many against their M2s, though hopes were high of at least a win given that we sat near the top of the table compared with Horncastle's tenth spot.

The neutral observer would not have guessed which team was at which end from the opening passages of play, as Horncastle pushed on from the first whistle, mounting a number of dangerous attacks. One in particular resulted in their forward through one-on-one with George, but he stood big and kicked the shot away to the side.

We made our first foray forward about ten minutes in. It culminated in Joe trying to pick out Rob, who was just inside the top of the circle. Joe's pass came to Rob on his reverse, and his trap wasn't quite up to bringing it under his spell, the ball skewing harmlessly away. The visitors' keeper watched carefully as it trundled into the corner of his net, for a sixt…wait a second, back up: Rob was inside the circle when he failed to properly control it! So as it has ended up in the back of the net, then it must be a goal…

Four weeks early, but all such gifts are gratefully received.

The visitors tried to shake off this aberration, and continued to press our back line, who often found themselves scrambling to try and cover all the free players. However, during this period we were also slowly waking up to the necessary speed of play, and it was we who were the next to strike. A move down the right resulted in a blocked shot; blocked, but not cleared, as the ball ended up with Rob six yards out, from where he applied a trademark reverse stick sweep into the bottom corner.

Rob completed his hat-trick before the interval in somewhat odd fashion, a Horncastle defender reaching directly upwards with his stick to drag a ball that had popped up very high back to earth. He managed this, but only to the extent of depositing the ball straight at the feet of Rob, a handful of yards out with just the keeper to beat. Rob duly put it home.

Early in the second half Rob nearly made it four, both personally and for the team. Indeed, he was already celebrating doing so as his shot headed for the bottom left corner, only for the Horncastle keeper to appear from nowhere and deflect impressively wide. The visitors used that let off well, pulling one back a few minutes later, their forward taking advantage of some limp tackles to dribble in and put in a shot that looped off a defensive stick and went in via the far post.

The next goal was vital. Fortunately it didn't take long for us to score it. It came from a good team move that fed the ball up to Jason, high and wide on the right. JJ drove along the baseline and attempted to pull the ball back to the spot. It hit a defensive foot en route, which lifted it towards the back post where Si was on hand to bunt the airborne ball home.

That basically killed the game as a contest, with it just becoming a question of whether we could pad our lead. The Monckosaurus was desperately close with one short corner strike, a Horncastle defender doing remarkably well to hook the ball away in mid-air he charged out. But that was a temporary reprieve for the visitors, as it was soon five. This one was the best of the game, a sweeping move and good finish that started with the ball transferred across the defence (Jan to Dave to Neil), then worked up to Ed, who passed it back to the top of the circle, perfectly into the stride of Raj. He collected at pace and then applied a reverse stick flick that lifted the ball high into the opposite top corner.

Decent results elsewhere mean we are back up to second in the table, and with a game in hand to boot.