Saturday saw the visit of Peterborough 6ths to Long Road. Languishing towards the foot of the league table and fielding only a bare eleven, it always threatened to be a tough day at the office for their inexperienced side, and so it proved as they were unfortunate enough to run into the M2s on one of the rare occasions upon which we were able to score goals at regular intervals. That said, there was still the opportunity for Dom Reeve to charge forward to tap in an open goal from a yard out at one stage, only to fall over and sit on the ball instead. Standard.

Mariano did manage to get himself an enforced five minutes sit down early on in the game, interfering with a deeply taken Peterborough free hit, but we managed to negotiate this period without too much difficulty.

After that, we found the back of the net via Jon Mann (firing in from the top of the circle after a nice pass from Shin), Nik Patel (via a nice move down the left flank), Menzies (close range from a short corner), Ash (even closer range from a short corner) and two from Jack Chalk (a solid left post sweep and a Barton-esque reverse stick blader).

As the net bulged continually, those playing in a deeper midfield role were able to sit back and contemplate in greater detail what a bargain £6.50 is for a double gin and tonic at The Junction.

At one stage, I cast my eyes over my shoulder to look at our defensive line, where as usual Tom Anns was playing hockey like a man sketching drowsily from some half-remembered nightmare. There was only one moment of alarm, when our visitors sent a hopeful through-ball into a large expanse of space in front of Matt Gower’s D. Anns, up against a rather sprightly youth, sensed the danger. He readied himself, applied some more deep heat cream from a handy pocket, and set off. Ten seconds and twenty yards later, it was neck and neck, but Tom found another burst of speed from somewhere and seared ahead to snuff out the danger.

Presumably his teenage opponent has since retired from all forms of sport.