South prepared themselves for the second half of the league season with an excellent work-out against well-matched opponents who ran hard up front and continually created problems with imaginative passing and strong breaks. Indeed, Kettering's sharpness brought its reward as early as the second minute when, with the South defence struggling to find its feet, an unmarked forward found his way to the centre spot and converted a rapid cross with a well-angled touch into the corner which gave the diving Steve Parker little chance.

Parker then had to pull off a quick save from another goal-bound shot before South finally managed to penetrate Kettering territory and win a short after thrusting work from John Taylor on the right wing and Rob Barton in the middle. From Chris Massey's forceful push out, Rob Sprawson switched the ball to Barton, who manoeuvred himself neatly to strike the equaliser past an apparently unsighted goalie in the fifth minute.

A further short, this time driven in by Sprawson, was pushed away for a long after which the game moved evenly to and fro, with Andy Rose putting in his usual tigerish performance at left midfield and Jim Thorpe resolutely plugging the occasional defensive hole created by Kettering's front four. Massey's excellent control in the centre, allied to strong running from Barton and the selfless Sanjay Agarwala, gave South some impetus but there was perhaps not quite enough concerted support to put the home defence under real pressure.

Kettering, by contrast, always looked dangerous going forward and created two or three openings for clear shots but these were either off target or diverted wide. South were not helped by a finger injury to reliable centre-back Rob Hay, who was forced to sit out the rest of the game, but newcomer Vijay Agarwala, despite little recent practice, quickly made his mark with some precise tackling allied to good distribution.

As the half drew to a close, South won a little more possession and began to dominate up the left, where Massey provided the trigger for a classic one-two between Barton and Rose before the former just failed to connect with an insightful through ball. Thorpe then skilfully defused a further Kettering rush before Rose and Sanjay Agarwala forced a third short, which was slapped hard by Sprawson but well saved by the home keeper.

Kettering started the second half with renewed vigour, twice testing Vijay Agarwala at the back but he proved equal to the task, once clearing deftly for brother Sanjay to thread a forty yard pass through to Barton, who came agonisingly close with a tangential half-dink which nearly wrong-footed the goalie. The home team raced straight back though, slicing through the South defence to create a gilt-edged opening but keeper Parker coolly dispossessed the attacker with a diving block and a one-handed sweep away to the wing. A superbly supple right-footed stretch prevented another almost certain goal from short range moments later and a hectic few minutes for the skipper was then concluded when he made an excellent stick save from a rasping Kettering short.

Thorpe and Jonny Tostevin stoutly resisted further incursions and the game swung slightly in South's favour after a home defender gave the ball away with an over-ambitious backpass and a rich Scots expletive. Sanjay Agarwala raced away and, though just failing to find Barton with his cross, went on to create mayhem in the left-hand corner before pragmatically winning a free hit off an errant defensive foot.

Meanwhile, Tostevin had nearly made the breach with a delicious feint and a silky run up the inside-right channel and the umpire had yellow carded the noted Kettering bad boy for one theatrical laugh too many. This merely seemed to galvanise the home team, though, and after drawing a good left-footed kick from Parker, they managed to force a cross through the D for an unmarked attacker to slot home on the far post.

Despite determined attempts from Massey to get forward, Kettering continued to press and should have extended their lead on a big breakaway after fifty-one minutes but, though rounding an exposed Parker, they were unable to pass Vijay Agarwala, who covered heroically and made a crucial intervention inches from the line. The resulting short petered out and another, two minutes later, was confidently beaten away by Parker. Inexplicably, the return to action of the Kettering miscreant prompted an upturn in South fortunes and Taylor came into his own on the right, eating up large chunks of ground to batten on to a feed from Barton and roof the ball via the goalie's pads from a cunningly-lifted drive.

Both Barton and Taylor continued to force the pace in the final ten minutes and Sanjay Agarwala, bravely defying cramp and a recent stomach bug, ran persistently but the home side overcame some jittery defensive moments to set up several late attacks. Left back Rob Garrett, growing in assurance and confidence as the game progressed, and Vijay Agarwala were to the fore in breaking these up and there was also the wondrous experience of hearing Jim Thorpe offering strong moral uplift over a distance of seventy yards and then seeing him beat three men with what looked suspiciously like an Indian dribble from behind his own twenty-five.

Two last-ditch shorts for Kettering proved fruitless, with Garrett and Vijay Agarwala well out to one and Parker, unfazed by a neat switch and racing swiftly out to his left, putting in a great block to save the other. The final attack belonged to South but the whistle came just as Taylor was (surely?) about to sprint fifty yards into the D and bury the winner. Nevertheless, a draw was a very fair result, especially as South were not at full strength, and there was the added bonus of seeing the ever-inventive Chris Massey deliver a fearsome (if unintentional) hip-check that would have done credit to Wayne Gretzky.

South now look forward to the second half of the league campaign and earnestly hope that their opposition will provide no surprises as nasty as Kettering District Council's artfully-camouflaged speed bumps to throw them off course.