Bloodied, bruised and frustrated. That would sum up the M3s' dressing room after this rather physical match in March.

We started decently enough, probing the home defence and looking for chances, but about fifteen minutes in found ourselves down to ten after JT saw a yellow card after an off-the-ball incident. That prompted a re-jig which worked fine whilst we were down to ten. So we continued with the new midfield shape (but with two up front) after getting back to eleven, which was also working well…up until March won a short. Joe saved the first shot but a home player was the quickest to react to the rebound and bundled home.

Half-time brought another formation tweak as sweeper Dave was moved all the way to the top of the team, to try and make a nuisance of himself. This worked to an extent, that extent being the Monckosaurus's first open-play goal since the Cretaceous period as he showed his old striker skills (he was one back in the day, apparently) to snaffle a loose ball and finish with a squeeze-shot from close range.

It really felt like we were back in the game at this point, with play much more concentrated around the March circle than ours. A number of times the ball was flashed across - with South sticks just out of reach - but unfortunately the balls were either played too hard, or on the wrong line, or players were on their heels rather than on the balls of their feet expecting to need to react to it coming their way. The March keeper also pulled off a fair few solid saves.

Then, with two minutes left, came the sucker punch. Another of our attacks was broken up with too many men upfield. This gave space for a counter, which produced a short. And that was neatly despatched via a drag-flick into the top left-hand corner of Joe’s goal.

Overall a match to forget. Our fate is still in our hands; we look forward to next Saturday and a match against St Ives.