It was time for the merry-go-round again at St Catz astroturf on Saturday as six of South's squad from the previous week dismounted and Messrs Agarwala, Fleck, Garrett, Hay and Simpson all clambered aboard to take up the reins.

Considering the positional changes required, South did well to contain the thoroughbred City attack in the first ten minutes as the home side used the full width of the pitch and, though there were some giveaways and elementary errors from dead-ball positions, defensive linchpin Chris Graveling and the pragmatic Keith Simpson generally held their opponents in check. Doug Leckie dribbled nervelessly out of a tight corner on more than one occasion and, by the time South had won their first short after eight minutes, they had already had a good chance to score courtesy of a quick-thinking move involving Ryan Thomas, Rob Garrett and finally Andy Rose, who just skimmed the keeper before City averted the danger. Neither South's short nor City's first, which soon followed, came to anything but South continued to play positively despite some queasy moments at the rear. Veejay Agarwala was tenaciously skilful at left-half, Richard Morgan distributed crisply, and Rose and Thomas found each other with pleasing regularity to set up several promising situations.

When City threatened near the D on twelve minutes, Graveling's intimidating presence caused the ball-carrier to fall over spontaneously in a shower of arms and legs, but there were no such mistakes a couple of minutes later when City, adept throughout at drawing the foul, won the second of their eleven penalty corners. However, keeper Steve Parker, braced as ever for hard-core action, read the switch and made a good block to his right from a hard low strike to maintain the zero. South then launched a swift counter-attack after City's third short, and a slick sequence of passes from Agarwala, Simpson and skipper Jim Thorpe set the hard-running Thomas up for a shot which deserved more but just went wide. After Parker had calmly neutralised a sharp City attempt with a clearance to the wing, Thomas was on the warpath again and, after feeding Garrett, whose shot was half-stopped by the keeper, he slotted smartly into the second wave and stuffed away a close-range effort to notch his third goal in four games.

The play went coast-to-coast for the next ten minutes, with Parker putting in a pinpoint clearance to Agarwala before watching an angled cross deflect narrowly past a post. Garrett's extra pace - profitably used in his former right-wing mode - created chances up front as he interpassed with Thorpe and Thomas, and he nearly doubled the lead on twenty minutes as the City keeper was almost rounded. Then Parker effortlessly absorbed and despatched a piledriver from his right before diving up and across to parry a goalbound deflection. City continued to be difficult to dispossess in the D, but Morgan, Simpson and Graveling sensibly kept their heads and gradually wormed the ball out.

Rob Hay won a key tackle on the twenty-five and South had a golden opportunity when Rose, taking Hay's excellent pass, was clumsily fouled in City territory. But Thorpe's slip from the resulting short was not fully exploited and the keeper was able to clear safely. Although Rose, Graveling and Leckie all stood their ground in the face of mounting attacks, the fake gunshot from the local bird-scarer seemed to be a harbinger and, on thirty-three minutes, a snappy four-man move originating from City's left midfield had the South defence chasing shadows as an unmarked man raced in to finish clinically. After Garrett had been robbed at the death by a desperate diving tackle and Agarwala had once more spirited the ball out of a tricky spot in the left corner, Graveling and Parker between them ensured that there were no further problems before the break, Parker thwarting a City short with a fine diving stick-and-glove save for a long corner and Graveling tackling on the turn with devastating sleight of foot.

South, who according to at least one of the City subs were still leading 1-0 at this stage, started the second half with a series of simple, sensible moves initiated by Morgan and Graveling but conceded an ugly short after forty-one minutes and, from this, the home side took the lead when a direct strike, momentarily obscured from Parker's view, skimmed a glove on the way in. South came nerve-janglingly close to an equaliser almost immediately when super-sub Steve Fleck, scourge of many a local defence over the decades, burnt up the middle after great work by Thomas and Rose and courageously managed to get a firm shot off despite an imminent flattening from the City keeper. The ball was inches wide, to City's obvious relief, but this miss - and the set of bleeding knuckles which went with it - did not deter the terrier-like Irishman from injecting a welcome dash of devilment into the attack for the rest of the game.

South continued to try and build steadily, with Morgan in good touch and getting stuck in, but there were too many unforced errors, particularly from set plays, for the right sort of possession to be maintained for the necessary length of time. Nevertheless, Leckie came close to that elusive second goal when firing a flick into the side netting after forty-seven minutes, and the spirit was clearly good since City's subs were anxiously urging their men on to "want it more". Hay, Graveling and Parker firmly repelled a determined assault near the right-hand post, Morgan kept his purple patch going and City's seventh short was neatly snuffed out on each of the three occasions it was taken. A Graveling drive upfield nearly secured the breakthrough in the fifty-third minutes as he moved forward and Thorpe back, and Hay's interception gave Leckie the opportunity to demonstrate the fancy stuff before igniting Fleck, whose cross just missed the onrushing Thomas. A further two shorts were seen off, to City's evident frustration, before Leckie embarked on another juggernaut run which left five opponents trailing in his wake. But after Garrett and Thomas had successfully funnelled the ball up the left, City took advantage of a two-man collision in the South midfield to create a cast-iron chance just inside the D which was again coolly slotted away despite Parker's best efforts, to give the home side a 3-1 lead with ten minutes to go.

South, though refusing to panic, could make little headway over the next five minutes as Thomas and Fleck, working overtime to get a result from good ball from Thorpe and Agarwala, were stymied by the resolute City defence whenever they threatened to make inroads. Simpson, returning for the final phase, tackled with good sense and judgment, as did Morgan, but, in the dying moments, it was once again left to Parker to keep the scoreline respectable as he beat out two stinging shorts, one with a resolute diving block and stick clearance and the other with an inch-perfect raised pad save on the whistle.