A return trip for the M5s to Ely City's temporary home at Ely College, their much awaited new pitch currently consisting of several hundred bags of sand stored in the corner of the car park.

The away team arrived keen to avenge the recent three-one defeat at the hands of Ely's 3s, despite the prospect of much stronger opposition from the promotion chasing 2s. Buoyed by the return of defensive giants, James P and Rock Radford, South started well, stifling most of the home team's attacks before they reached debutante keeper Tendayi R, but nevertheless calling upon him to make some critical saves early in game, ably assisted by Shahzad with some excellent 3D defensive skills. At the other end, the South midfield and attack were in good form, communicating and passing well and creating several good opportunities to seize an early lead.

At half time there was still little to separate the two teams, which was fairly reflected by the nil-nil scoreline. It was the home team however who nudged ahead shortly after the restart with a deflection that seemed to have been saved but was deemed to have crossed the line by the umpire. Whilst we don't doubt the accuracy of this decision, it was a close call so we hope that they might install VAR technology at their new pitch! A second Ely goal followed a few minutes later and it looked like we were heading for another 3-x loss (where x < 3). But perhaps not! A rare South short corner skimmed across the D for Rob B to blast towards the goal, finding its home via a deflection off the keeper's right pad. Undeterred, the home team continued to press hard and sealed the tie with a further two goals in the final minutes of the game.

This was arguably our best performance of the season so far and a good sign for our final match of the year against St Neots 4s, a team we beat at the start of the season.

Tendayi R was worthy winner of MoM for a brilliant debut in the keeper's kit.

LoM was awarded to Ky for an alleged pinching incident which we are convinced was purely an attempt to wake himself up from the nightmare of yet another 3-x defeat!