After last weekend’s disappointment in Skegness this week started with a worrying sense of déjà vu: once again we were faced with another long trip to the sandy surfaces of Lincolnshire, once again we had only nine of our regular squad available. We would also be playing a Long Sutton side who still harboured promotion ambitions and hadn’t lost since October, and to top it all Nev’s laminator had packed up.

However, there were a few suggestions of silver around the edges of the cloudy East Anglian skies: that last defeat for Long Sutton back in October had been to us, after a canny performance which suggested a dominance in skill, possession, territory, youth, speed and reverse stick-tomahawks didn’t necessarily guarantee a win; Ash A was back in the team and eager to show his boyhood club that he still had the old magic; Joe was back from a dwarf-tossing, shot-downing sales conference in San Diego; George was back in goal having being tracked down by the police after running shirtless at 2am across the fields outside Saffron Walden; Ed was back to get out of spending the day moving house; Will had managed to get out of bed first thing in the afternoon; and Nev had found an emergency back-up laminator.

The meet time turned out to have been conservatively set by Nev (who palmed off the blame on absentee skipper, Kern), which allowed the team to enjoy most of the previous match. Except Nev’s car that is, which arrived thirty minutes after everyone else, Nev having either found a particularly slow tractor to follow across the fens or failed to find third gear.

The opening passages of play were cagey with neither side suggesting a clear dominance. South’s solid opening was quickly undone though, when a short corner after five minutes was lashed home from the top of the D by the Long Sutton centre forward with a powerful hit about six inches off the deck that whizzed past George’s right pad and over the top of Neil’s stick on the post.

A setback, but South recovered and pushed forward again. Ash was showing some great distribution from the back while Ed, on the left and Toby, in the centre, were eager to run at the Sutton defence whenever they got the chance. A ball was moved down the right before being played into the D, where it fell to Ed in a crowd who struck home and levelled the score.

We were back in the game but Long Sutton continued to look threatening, with pace and skill on the break and strong hold-up and linking play from their dangerous centre forward. The home side re-established their lead midway through the half when a hard ball into the D was neatly deflected by an attacker on the run to leave George stranded as the ball nestled inside his right post. A third was quickly added from another break which turned the defence and ended with a firm shot left to right into the far corner of the goal. The game was slipping away and South needed to stem the tide quickly.

Hope was restored on the stroke of half time. A short corner was won and with Toby off the pitch, Ash came up to receive the injection. He trapped, looked up, and flicked a perfect shot high and hard to nestle inside the angle between the keeper’s left post and the crossbar. After a quick check to make sure his watching family and spectators had clocked the textbook technique, he was wheeling away in celebration as the half time whistle blew, and the deficit was back to one.

The details of Nev’s half time team talk have eluded me - something about moving to receive the ball - but it must have been inspirational stuff as it certainly had the desired effect. Perhaps it was absorbed osmotically on some subconscious level. Whatever, the visitors started the second half as we had ended the first, winning another short corner and this time it was Nev who got on the score sheet. His shot had looked to be heading wide - Nev argues otherwise - before a defender made the debate irrelevant with a deflection that ended with the ball in the goal.

Now the game really was all to play for. Long Sutton looked unsettled but determined, while South were getting more joy across the pitch. Ed had moved into the centre, where his reach and pace were causing problems for the home side, and Toby’s rampaging runs forward were producing chances and short corners. Chris, another returnee back at uni after the Christmas break, was working his socks off in front of the defence while Neil was sitting on the centre forward, who sacked it off and retired to the sideline for an extended chat to his coach at one point, leaving Ash to mop up any loose balls with razor tackles and slide rule distribution. Pash, from right back, was surging forward to link with guesting Oli A while Will, being rewarded for scoring South’s consolation goal on his return to the team last week by being moved to wing back, was solid on the left and only occasionally forgot that he was now a defender and had to mark people.

Momentum was with the visitors and the decisive goal arrived from Joe. Maybe a week of testosterone-fuelled Glengarry Glen Ross US sales team talk had got him psyched up, but when a ball rebounded off the Sutton keeper it was Joe who reacted instantly to knock the mid-air ball into the back of the net.

There was still plenty of time on the clock and the South defence was called on repeatedly to preserve the lead, as several Long Sutton attacks almost worked an equaliser. George made a number of good saves, including one which saw him juggle the ball out of his D with his pads, keepie-uppie style. Unconventional, but with no attackers directly in front of him to be in any danger, completely legal and surprisingly effective.

In the end though, the Long Sutton attacks petered away and the clock ran out with South comfortably in possession and retaining the ball. A great turn-around and South returned with the first points taken by a visiting side at Long Sutton this season. Our peculiar form of picking up points from the teams ahead of us while slipping up against those below continues. With a few more regulars back, hopefully we’ll have more Suttons than Skegnesses over the remainder of the season.