South 3s took on their relegation rivals, City of Peterborough, in a must-win battle for three crucial Division 4NW points. The winner would be guaranteed to be out of the bottom two, with the loser left hoping on other results. After letting a two goal lead slip earlier in the season at Fortress Long Road, it was vital that the focus remained high for the whole seventy minutes this time around.

The early moments were played at a high pace with both sides eager to assert authority. The M3s got off to a great start when Dan Loy found some space in the D to shovel a ball under the CoP Goalie. It would probably have made it over the line but Nev Warren made sure with a delicate jab from two yards out: Ash Dookun may be gone, but his goal stealing exploits are never forgotten.

Determined to outdo Nev, Pip Ho took the goal stealing art to a higher level when Ollie Kenzie single-handedly walked around the CoP defence and goalkeeper to roll the ball goalwards for his first strike of the season. Pip decided that help was required from one yard out. Two-nil to the South.

Rob Hartle then showed that you need to be good when finishing in this team as he casually flicked the ball with speed and accuracy over the outstretched goalie. No chance anyone was nicking that one.

At half time, stand-in captain for the day, Seb Dias, stated some fine points about the delegation of captaincy duties and let the exotic Haribo Oven had procured from foreign climes seep into the tired bloodstreams of the ever-faithful listening team. NBM, George, Oven and Nev tried not to confuse matters but probably did with their not so concise "opinions"!

Peterborough upped their efforts in the second half and it was only the resolute defence of Neil "Kit Man" Sneade, Sev "Grumpy Man" Warren and George "Ladies Man?" Toynton that kept the South goal safe from scoring efforts. George in fact had a great game in goal and secured MoM for his efforts.

Oven turned on a tuppence and flicked a crafty shot to make the score 4-0. Pash wound up and smashed the ball into the top corner only for the Peterborough keeper to pull off an outstanding save. Rob, Pip and NBM then controlled the midfield for the rest of the game as the three points traveled home with the away team.

*Side note - There are times when you have a slight problem that, when assisted by others, snowballs into something massive. When preparing for a match that came after a week's holiday while still suffering the remnants of a chest infection, you would normally congratulate the athlete for a remedial sauna/steam room to promote healthy benefits for the upcoming fixture. Placing your towel on a toasty warm radiator before bedtime, would normally mean that you take the dry towel to the game the next day. The Warren family conspired against Nev Warren. Margaret Warren knocked off the towel in order to dry "more important stuff". Kasper Warren hid said towel on his play cooker out of plain sight. The only alternative was to take the available face towel/flannel when setting off. This was not a decent choice. Particularly when returning from the shower to find Sev Warren had used it first as he had "forgotten to bring his towel". It would have been drier had I had thrown it it a bath! Lemon-worthy indeed!