It was the best of matches, it was the worst of matches. It was the age of radio mikes, it was the age of first-time goalies. It was the epoch of Shin's self-belief, it was the epoch of everyone else's incredulity that he scored. Twice. It was the season of Pearson's harvest, it was the season of McCulloch's departure. It was the summer of Indians, it was the autumn of suncreen. We had the whole season before us, we had none of Colin's aerials to deal with. We were all going direct to our holidays afterwards, we were all going anywhere to avoid Graham's leaving do the next week. In short, the second period was so far like the first period, that some of its noisiest supporters insisted on it being recorded here, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of mockery only.  (ref)

Ok, lets be honest. We were feeling pretty confident about this match. The sun was shining, the WAGS were watching, the team was back together (and stronger than ever now that Graham was injured), and we were playing long time rivals Newmarket who - guess what? - are in the division below us! So yeah, we were going to kick some butt today! 

Except we didn't.

Cynics would say it was all down to Newmarket's early request to replace the yellow ball (clashing with their socks, totally ruining the look they were going for) with a white one.  Cynics would say this was a devious tactic from Newmarket as the white ball now blended so seemlessly with Tom's white legs that Stu spent more time hitting Tom's legs than the ball.  

But cynics would shortly be put in their place when, with the first South short-corner of the game, Shin confidently dispatched a rocket of a drag-flick into the top left corner of the goal. Boom! That's how we do it in DIV 2!

The first half continued to a background orchestra of message alerts as Colin appeared to be live-reporting his own hockey match up in Leeds ("Booommmmm just scored with an aerial!!!!"). Both sides had chances. Both sides messed those chances up. Pearson, Jack, Hockley and Pawson were combining nicely but the final touch eluded South. And the excess run-off from Tom's sunscreen was starting to make the D area treacherously slippy...

It was probably Stu slipping on said sunscreen and hitting Tom's leg again that gave away a short corner to Newmarket. Shin's opposite number stepped up and... dispatched a rocket of a drag-flck into the top left corner of the goal. Boom! Apparently that's how they do it in Div 3 as well :-(

Generous defending from South then let a pacey Newmarket defender dribble 30 yards into the D unchallenged, resulting in Newmarket's second goal via a far-post deflection. South went into the half-time break scratching their heads, wondering where the plan had gone wrong. The captain's message was clear: "Step it up" in the 2nd half!

...except Jack must have heard "step on it", firmly planting his foot on the ball instead of tapping it in just inches from the goal line, and 10 minutes later seemingly stepping on his other foot, sending him commando rolling with no-one anywhere near him. 

...Jim's hearing was no better, dutifully following instructions to "step on him" by ploughing into the opposition keeper (first game, bless him!), trampling him into the now sunscreen-soaked astro turf as he rampaged through to prod the ball euphorically the last 2 inches over the line. Truly one for the highlight reel...

Re-energised, South kept probing forward, with Spike and Average defying the heat to run their opposite numbers ragged up and down the flanks while Joel, Harry and Stu commanded the center of the pitch. A surging diagonal run from Jack, a trade-Mark pass back across the pitch from Williams sliced through the Newmarket defence and Shin found himself one-on-one with the keeper. A fient right, pull left, a neat reverse stick finish and we were 3-2 up. 

Shortly afterwards Harry, showing composed control in front of goal was taken down from behind in a manly fashion by the opposition keeper - much to the shock of the children watching. Rather than pressing charges, Harry agreed to the umpire's suggestion of a penalty flick. 'Great!' thought the side-line. A chance for our flick maestro Shin to get his hat-trick, doing what he does best! 

Ahem. Instead, up steps Chris and confidently buries the ball... into the post. Still, huge credit to Pearson for playing with a broken toe. A broken toe, ladies and gentlemen! *Audience applause*.

So 3-2 it finished. Shin had equaled his goal-tally for last season. The sun still shone. A BBQ was warming up. And so I leave you just with this thought:

It is a far, far better sport that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better club that I belong to than I have ever know.