South M2s welcomed back their captain and vice-captain for the key derby game against top of the table City 5s. Courtesy of some sterling work by the guys digging up Long Road, the returning Coops’s pre-match tactical discussion took place in a pretty much pitch black changing room but neither this, nor the peculiar a cappella version of “The Boys Are Back In Town” blaring from Spotify, could dampen the team’s enthusiasm. We were also interested to discover at this point that you can connect to Jon Mann’s astros by Bluetooth. Our standard pre-match warm-up on the tennis court was momentarily enlivened by the City boys lining up directly opposite us but, despite a number of suggestions as to what they might be doing (haka face-off? British Bulldog?), all remained surprisingly peaceful. There was still no sign at this point of Alex but, as his timekeeping has been a little continental so far this season, no alarm bells were ringing.

After a brief five minute on-pitch warmup, hostilities commenced for real, with City enjoying perhaps the majority of possession but South breaking quickly from the back and looking dangerous when doing so. As the half progressed, the midfield of Walshy, Jon Mann, Menzies and NBM began to assert themselves and a nicely-worked move resulted in Jack picking up his second goal in as many games for the M2s. City were also creating chances but Matt was standing strong in goal and on the only occasion that they managed to work it round him, Annsy was there to pick it out of the air on the goalline (I have to admit that I didn’t actually see this myself but Bhav, watching from the sidelines, described it as “epic” and his “highlight of the season”, so I guess it was probably alright).

We went into halftime feeling satisfied with a strong performance and keen to build on it in the second half. A number of us couldn’t help noticing, though, that there was still no sign of Alex, which wouldn’t have been too much of an issue (there still being eleven of us) if Walshy hadn’t had an early train to catch (roughly ten minutes before the end of the game-early). It was at this point that Dave Aston’s leisurely afternoon of watching hockey became a little more active than he’d been expecting…

The second half played out in a fairly similar way to the first, with City seeing more of the ball but South’s forward line (including Dom, whose performance was compared to the Pamplona Bull Run in post-match voting) creating chances throughout. We couldn’t manage to find a second goal though, and the final (VVC-less) ten minutes of the game saw the South goal under siege, with an injured Anns reduced to limping round the D gesticulating, but solid defensive work ensured that we picked up the vital three points from the game. Faced with the prospect of a cold shower in the dark after the game, we decided that heading straight for teas was probably, on this occasion, the sensible call. Post-match inquiries ascertained that Alex had never actually been scheduled to play. Oops.