South took to the field against promotion-chasing Sudbury low on numbers but boosted by the one-week return of an aerial specialist to their ranks!

Sudbury began the game the stronger, but after ten minutes South began to grow in confidence. Jason was manning the defence well, Paresh was pars-ing out well from the back. Mike and Harry were beginning to impose themselves well on the opposition midfield and up front, Pearson was beginning to drive through the Sudbury defence with the pace and precision of a Case IH Optum 300 CVX .

It was not so much of a surprise then when M1 went one up. A great exchange of passes led to a foul in the opposition D as our striker was destined to score. A flick was awarded. Pearson stepped up and, displaying the knowledge and wisdom of a man from a non-farming background, led the keeper into a false sense of security with a missed first attempt, being fully aware that the keeper had strayed too far from his line and that a retake would be ordered. No mistake was made second time around.

Later on in the half South doubled the advantage. Great hassle in the midfield led to an overturn of possession and the ball being slipped through to Pearson, who made no mistake from the top of the D.

South saw out the game to half time with little fuss, some great saves from the feet of Mann and one from the feet of Aston seeing off the Sudbury threat.

At half time Captain Stu pressed home the importance of keeping possession, harrying the opposition and continuing the great work of the first half.

And South began the second half just as strongly, comfortably managing the Sudbury attacks. However, midway through, their forward got one-on-one with Chris G, who had been green carded and warned [insert number of choice between 1 and 100 times here] already. He unfortunately brought down the player with a tackle Ron Oren would have been proud of, and was given his marching orders. See link below (definitions 4 and 5; and not the urban dictionary definition of the word), but many of Chris’ teammates were gravelinged by his tackle.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/graveling

Unfortunately, Sudbury scored soon after with a Jack Chalk twirly-spinny-thing and then were given a P flick when P made a tackle on the edge of the D, which was duly put away. The return of Graveling couldn’t stop the winner for Sudbury, with an attempted cross catching the legs of Colin and wrong-footing the excellent Jason in goal. South still had the time to force a number of short corners, but the Sudbury back line were equal to them and they ground out a gritty win.

After the game, the team were downhearted but all agreed they had to pick themselves up quickly for an absolutely crucial six-pinter…………and after Colin’s birthday drinks that evening they then had an important relegation battle to prepare for next weekend.