If South appeared muted when they took to the field it was not through lack of focus but with a cold certainty, reflected by the weather, which didn’t require any showy displays of being ‘up for it’. The early exchanges set the tempo of the match, with South moving the ball with alacrity and probing the flanks whilst St Neots took the direct route, trying to crush South’s defence like a sledgehammer. The defensive quartet of Edge, Aston, Gibson and Baekelandt were less the thin red line, more impenetrable bastions who absorbed the opposition attacks.

The half continued with more back and forth, with South building attacks from the back and pulling St Neots about the pitch. Vice Vice Captain Midfield General (VVCMG) Walsh was an inexhaustible font of distribution, Samwise Polge a whirling dervish, ever looking for a chink in the defence and Jon Mann always looked dangerous. It was indeed Mr Mann who opened the scoring with a well-placed penalty corner strike, which the keeper could only deflect into the goal. The game was tense, electric, frenetic and how the half closed with only one goal scored will never be known.

Whether it was the rousing half time team talk, the upgraded Haribo or just blind luck, South doubled their advantage within thirty seconds of the start of the second half, Mr Mann dancing through the St Neots defence to slip the ball to Jack Chalk, on his 2nd XI season debut, to coolly slide the ball home. Moments later a penalty corner gave the Southerners the chance to extend their lead. With Manager Oven in his trade mark crouch, like a man tea-bagging an ant, the ball was stroked to the far post for James Menzies to casually deflect into the net.

At three-nil St Neots couldn’t find their way back into the match. They kept up their battering ram-style attacks but the defence were not going to yield. Douglas Gibson playing a man of the match role was the pick of the four, but all were working hard and playing well. The game started to open up and Shin started to find space and use it to good effect, confusing the defence (and his team mates) with mazy runs all over the pitch. Menzies made it four, scrambling the ball home off the keeper’s pads, to bag yet another brace like a master poacher.

With the game safe, Oven took to the field and in moments was found in the opposition D, slipping the ball to Shin for a well-deserved goal. St Neots claimed the final goal with the ball ping-ponging off keeper Matt Saint-Gower's pads to fall over the line as the game wound down.