The anticipation was palpable going into the second pre-season friendly of the year. With one close three-two win already under the M1s’ belts, a high intensity Tuesday training session earlier that week and most importantly the first CSHC social of the year later that night, spirits were high in the warm-up. Captain Stu Rimmer provided an inspiring pre-match team talk which unfortunately lead to Ollie Lamming getting overly excited where in a fit of madness he decided to head the ball towards goal when a wayward shot popped up from Darren in the shoelace drill two minutes later. Silly Ollie.

Thirty minutes into the first half the CSHC spectators were perplexed as the M1s’ seemed to opt for a bold new strategy of allowing the spritely Bishop Stortford to run rings around them and score four goals in quick succession. Little did they know that they were playing right into our game plan and the trap was set…

We had successfully drawn them in to a false sense of security largely thanks to the efforts of Chris Pearson, who in a feat of pure theatricality deliberately skied the ball wide of the post from two yards out. Unfortunately, some more sceptical members of the team awarded Chris the lemon for this. Unlucky Pearson: I know a miss that shocking must have been deliberate.

CSHC caught Bishop Stortford off guard shortly after the second half started with Paresh rifling a piercing cross into the circle for Harry Lewis to get a well-timed touch to redirect the ball across the face off goal and past the goalkeeper into the far corner. Following this goal spirits were lifted and BSHC were visibly rattled. After a period of play of some excellent battling the M1s managed to get another two courtesy of Ollie Lamming (despite a possible concussion) and Chris Pearson (proving he does know where the goal is). I don’t remember how the other goals were scored so lets just presume they were both worldies.

In the last ten minutes of the game momentum was certainly with South as we were pressing Stortford further and further back into their half. South won a long corner that was taken quickly by Harry, feeding a ball through to new kid on the block, James Bailey, who ran across the top of the D before executing a pretty nifty behind the back pass to Mark Williams, who was waiting to smash the equaliser with a bullet of a tomahawk shot past a stunned GK.

Despite clawing the game back to four all CSHC ran out of time, with the final whistle being blown at a tie. However, consolation was taken from the fact they were a strong team that had been relegated from the league above the previous season and the M1s put out a strong second half performance. Man of the match was awarded to Harry Chalk for outstanding work rate throughout the game.

The highlight of game day was of course the Cambridge South social, kindly organised by social secretaries Alice Hug of the L1s and the M1s’ very own Harry Lewis. The Punt Yard was filled to the brim with representatives from a whole host of CSHC teams. Many kebabs were consumed and beverages ordered (mainly by our sponsor, Shin Kim) until eventually the night drifted towards The Regal and the events of the day’s mildly frustrating performance were all forgotten.