Winning back-to-back games for the first time in three years has prompted the first report of the season. Looking through the archives, the last time the Vets won two successive games was in October 2002 so this is an event to celebrate.

Following last week’s league win over Peterborough we entertained Chelmsford in a friendly in a match that proved to be very enjoyable both on the pitch and afterwards in the pub.

Cambridge South started the match looking the most likely team to score but could not turn their early pressure into a goal. Chelmsford came back into the match and their two international over-60 players made up for lack of pace with superb skills.

However midway through the half, following a move involving passes between half the team, Karl Konradt received the ball near the top of the circle which he hit passed the keeper for South to take a well-earned lead. A few minutes later, following a very similar move, Roger Craigen converted the final pass to make the score two-nil.

Chelmsford made a concerted effort after this and put the South defence under pressure and finally reduced the deficit with a slightly bizarre goal. Jim Sutcliffe made a good save only to see the ball strike an attacker’s stick and then loop back towards goal, hit the back of Steve Riches head and slowly travel over the line. Well that is how it was described to me as by now the light was starting to fade and the floodlights hadn’t yet been turned on!

The second half was fairly evenly balanced, with Ricky Williams being unlucky not to extend the South lead on a couple of occasions. In midfield, Geoff Butcher and Piyush Jani were in control and Geoff was very vocal with his masterful directions to the players around him. Keith Davidson on the right and Karl Konradt on the left of Geoff and Piyush help control the centre of the pitch but when Chelmsford got round them the defence of Kevin Pride, Andrew Matthews, Graham Cormack and Steve Riches were able to deal with the danger, although Jim was called upon to make several good saves.

Towards to end of the half South finally made the game safe when after a period of pressure Piyush scored his first goal for the club.

An excellent team effort which shows what can be achieved by effort, passing and running into space and pulling the opposition around to create room for others.

Now on to the next match and the possibility of winning 3 on the trot!