The Halloween weekend saw the M1s take to the road for an away game in Witham. Numbers were low and, with both captain and vice-captain unavailable, the mantle fell squarely on Dave’s shoulders. Shin even turned up (a little worse for wear) from a party in London to give us a second sub. Despite missing a few of our usual players, the team looked similar to the last outing against Witham, and we hoped for a similar result.

South started strong, and it looked like we might dominate the game. The high press almost immediately turned over possession from the Witham push-back, and Harry took it into the D for a quick shot on goal. Sadly, the keeper pulled off a good save, and this was to be the story of much of the first half.

Witham reorganised themselves but never looked too dangerous. In contrast, we managed to use some good passing hockey to get several shots on goal and a couple of short corners in the opening stages. Later in the half, the ball was switched around to Chris in midfield, who dribbled through two players, broke into their D and fired the ball into the back corner to leave us one-nil up!

Perhaps buoyed by our relentless pressure, captain Dave found himself ready to take a quick free hit in the middle of the pitch, and drove hard (fine, aggressive ball carry). However, he was blocked almost immediately by three Witham sticks, who stole the ball and fired it down to their centre-forward, who quickly turned into the D and put the ball away. The rest of the half wound down fairly evenly, with Jason called upon to make some good saves, and Joel controlling the middle of the pitch.

The half-time talk centred around keeping up the work rate, as one-one didn’t reflect the number of chances we’d had on goal. We started strong once more, switching it around Colin and Tom at the back, through to Mike, Owen (who went an entire match without being carded) and Tom Steed in the middle. However, the control of the game started to shift in Witham’s favour. We weren’t quite linking our final passes, and they countered quickly. One such occasion saw a number of slick passes down the line, where their skilful winger was able to pull the ball back into the D and execute a shot in a tight bit of space.

Two-one didn’t look insurmountable, but Witham managed the game well, holding possession as we tried to rush to bring the score back level. Despite good runs from the front line, and a few good aerials from Colin, we couldn’t quite break through. As the half wore on, Dave suddenly collapsed in a heap after being tackled. Had he been shot? Had he dislocated his kneecap? Nothing quite so spectacular – just a bit of cramp.

Witham continued to apply pressure, holding the ball a little better than us and making use of their more solid defenders. They eventually won a short, which was slipped left. Mike made a good block, but lost his footing and their second man hammered the ball into the corner to make it three-one.

From then on, their game management showed, as they retained the ball and repeatedly passed it round the back. The only further moment of interest was when Chris took a long dribble through the middle and was held up by a strong stick tackle. Shin backed him up in a very vocal fashion – and was immediately carded for his efforts. Attempts to card their player who had made the tackle were thwarted when the umpire couldn’t find him.

Things were summed up in the changing rooms after the match with a bit of Coldplay and Snow Patrol to lighten the mood. Some good passages of play and a very tight league table means we’ve got everything to play for next week.