Wanting to see his young son play, Oliver Weston's father, Gareth, graciously offered to drive half the team.

We sneaked up to Fort Kettering via their sandy green coastline, and it was on these sands that the battle took place…little did we know that Kettering 3s were gleefully lying in wait.

Lacking a volunteer goalkeeper, we rolled the die. On 2 it landed: Oliver Weston. Looks like Gareth won't be able to see his son play after all…until Alex Pashley jokingly suggests asking him to keep instead.

And why not? Gareth agrees! The goalkeeping kit is a surprisingly good fit over his jeans and dress shirt.

Throughout the game, Gareth positions himself well and gets many touches of the ball, saving a number of goals which helped secure him the Man of the Match award. A hidden talent. If one didn't know better, one would assume tha he was a proper goalkeeper.

Andi Caddy intimidates the opposition constantly by sticking with oncoming attackers and jabbing left and right.

Alex Pashley, Adrian Granger Brown, Simon Ta, and Shahbaz Ali make some good breakthroughs against an overbearing opposition defence. There were a surprising number of chances on goal but unfortunately the opposition managed to keep the ball out.

Captain Wilco Dijkstra, Simon Kitchen, and young Oliver Weston try their absolute best to menace oncoming attackers and get the ball to the front line, showing off well-thought passes to our far off players in space.

Howard Steed showed that he still has the touch, never buckling under pressure and insightfully taking the ball wide and passing it up the line at every opportunity.

The Hex also has its moments:

• Top defender Garth Wells is injured barely minutes in and has to sit out the rest of the game.

• We win a short. The sand interferes on pushout; the ball barely makes it to the middle of the D.

• The game is furiously fast. Unfortunately the pace set by the young ones in the opposition means that they break through quickly and often.

• Alan "The Rock" Radford gets hit on his mid-leg and spontaneously grows a third knee. This does not stop him from orchestrating the defence and midfield tactics throughout the game, without which the score would have been far worse.

• Opposition players accidentally step on Simon Ta's ankle, making him limp for a good period.

• A couple of falling downs while on the ball due in no small part to the sand.

Six-nil down, Simon Ta takes the ball from midfield and runs with it into the opposition D, whacking it hard across the ground. The opposition defender deflects the ball into the air and we win our goal. We lost the game, but the goal made it feel like we finished equal. We ended the game with spirits somewhat battered but heads held high, enthusiastically cheering our opposition for a game well battled.

On our return home to Fort Long Road, we were treated to a glorious battle between our M4s and Kettering 4, a lower team than the one we had just played. Final score: six-nil to South; a perfect end to a bittersweet Day.