The last match before Christmas was a reprise of the opening game of the season. The M3s won four-one that day, so confidence was high ahead of the game that we could turn around a recent drop off in results and go into the mid-season break on a high.

The game started (eventually, see below) with the temperature hovering at a balmy three degrees above freezing. South started on the front foot…for five minutes. Then the first rolling sub was made, the player coming on looked off the pace initially (err, sorry about that!), which led to a penalty corner and conceding the opening goal. The initial strike was partially blocked but deflected badly from our point of view, dropping for the man on the post to hammer in.

Having settled back down we began to press again, and would have leveled apart from two fine saves from the home stopper to deny Ash D and Dom. He wasn’t the only keeper in action though as the Saint, resplendent in his new club keeping top, got just enough inner thigh on a Saints’ penalty corner strike to skew it across the face of the goal and wide. *phew*

We needed to be level and in the last few minutes of the opening half, that is what we were. It came from a bit of penalty corner ad-libbing, Joe taking the loose ball and dribbling through a number of attempted ‘tackles’ that got nothing of the ball and lots of the ankle. Joe went down with a cry of (affected) pain, the defence stopped, but Ash D didn’t as he took advantage of a good advantage from the St Neots umps to put it past the exposed stopper from close range.

The second half opened with South on the back foot for the first five minutes. This proved to be very costly as it lost us our skipper, who was forced to leap out of the way of a desperate sweep by a South stick and, either on the way up or down, did something rather nasty to his ankle. Cue writhing in agony on the ground which, given how cold it was (down to 1°C by now), was not somewhere anyone would voluntarily stay for longer than necessary. As he was carried off, Matt reported than he had, ‘Felt something tear,’ which meant a Saturday evening at Addenbrookes rather than the club Christmas party that he had organised. Fingers crossed it is weeks out rather than months, but the initial signs weren’t promising.

At least we had a sub though, having traveled with thirteen. The same wasn’t true of the hosts, who quickly picked up an injury of their own which, while less serious than Matt’s, was possibly more damaging in this game. We were temporarily playing against ten, which saw us take control. Chances were coming in the Saints’ circle and it was just a matter of time before sheer weight of numbers forced one of them in, which is what looked like it happened for Simon’s strike midway through the half.

Another Saints injury further reduced their threat, but we couldn’t put the game to bed. We should have done so when Dom jabbed past the last defender, got a shot off that was half-saved by the keeper but rolled behind the stopper. Dom was first to the loose ball on the penalty spot, slapped it at the gaping net…and missed two feet to the right. WTF?! In the end this didn’t matter, but it was enough to secure the Lemon ‘vote’ in the face of pretty stiff competition…

• Ash D – there is sense in building in some contingency to make sure you get to the meet on time. Three hours is possibly a little much, though. Also pushing his weight on the pitch.

• Alex – friendly fire.

• Ash A and Simon – getting in the panto spirit early (Men in Tights).

• Matt – not quite Ash D levels, but showing up at the venue at 1pm for a 2.30pm push-back is overly keen.

• Dom – finishing from the Ronnie Rosenthal school.

• Joe – yelling like a Footballer.

• Neil – when presented with a list of options for the new club goalkeeping shirts, opted for ‘Hockey Ball Orange’, i.e. the exact shade that most clubs use for match balls. Clever.

• Toby – mysterious recurring illness that flares up post-Friday nights…