South finally registered a first league win of the campaign, edging past St Ives 2nds in a game of wildly fluctuating momentum.

South's first half performance was one of their better efforts of the season and they could have had the game wrapped up by half-time, if not for the inspired form of the St Ives keeper.

The first clear chance came in the fifth minute, when Andy Rose won a tackle in midfield, moved the ball forwards to Alex Pooles, who slipped Nick Wong in, one-on-one. However the keeper was out fast and smothered Nick's shot. A minute later South came close again, when Phil Hunt played a ball down the left channel for Alex to sweep goalwards, again drawing a good save from the keeper. After ten minutes the St Ives keeper was at it again, making a high glove save to turn away Nick's flick of Phil's driven free hit.

St Ives had their first threatening moment of the match in the twelfth minute, when winning a short. keeper Anush Newman, making his South debut, saved the shot, only to see the ball get stuck under his pads for another short. From this, Anush again made a good save and the St Ives forward's attempt to knock in the rebound went wide.

After this slight scare, South went back on the attack and in the seventeenth minute created another good chance with a neat move. Nick picked up the ball on the right wing, beat his player with a typical spin move, swapped passes cleverly with Ryan Thomas, but again the shot was smothered by the onrushing keeper. Then, in the twenty-first minute, a South short corner was switched to Rob Hay on the right, his shot was blocked but ran free in the direction of Ryan, who just couldn't apply the finishing touch, the ball going wide.

Having tried sweeping moves and shorts, in the twenty-fifth minute South then attempted weight of numbers. After Phil had seen a shot blocked, Ryan lifted a reverse stick flick over the prone keeper, but the ball was cleared off the line as Nick threw himself at it in an attempt to force home.

After all these chances had come and gone, it was a relief when a goal finally arrived in the thirty-third minute. Another good driving run by Phil played in Alex down the right channel. His shot was half-blocked by the St Ives keeper but ran free to Ryan, arriving at the right place and right time, a yard out in the centre of the goal, from where he couldn’t miss.

In the final minute of the half, St Ives produce a rare threatening moment for the South defence, winning a short after a poor attempted tackle by centre back Rob Garrett. Again, Anush was equal to the driven shot, and the rebound went wide, leaving South one up at half time, but wondering whether it shouldn't have been more.

These worries should have been put to bed when South doubled their lead within the first fifteen seconds of the second half. From a St Ives push-back, Chris Baker made a good tackle and broke with the ball down the right-wing. He feed the ball into the D, where Nick jinked past his marker, only to have the ball taken off him by a tackle deliberately made with the back stick, prompting the St Ives umpire to award a penalty flick. Ryan took on the responsibility, and sent his flick high down the middle, giving the diving St Ives keeper no chance.

However, instead of giving South the cushion to go on to win the match, this goal appeared to breed some complacency. The defence of Mark Freer, Rob Garrett, Francois Lemoine and Rich Morgan, who had been so cool and comfortable in the first half, were suddenly under pressure with St Ives runners coming from all angles. In the forty-third minute, St Ives pulled one goal back when a runner down the right channel was allowed to get all the way to the byline. From there, a driven cross took an unfortunate deflection off a South body to fly high into the net, giving Anush no chance.

Then two minutes later, the scores were level, and forty minutes' good work had gone to waste. A ball was driven into the South D, ricocheted about for an agonising few seconds, wasn't cleared, and was eventually swept home by the familiar figure of former South vice-captain and top scorer Rob Barton, on his first return in St Ives colours. South's appeals for an infringement in the build-up fell on deaf ears.

South nearly retook the lead in the forty-seventh minute when a short corner was driven in by Rob Hay, and Alex added a neat flick, which unfortunately flashed over the bar. St Ives's reaction to this was to take the lead themselves three minutes later. An attack down the South left found a forward unmarked in the D. His shot drew a great save from Anush, but the ball ran free, and that man Barton again swept the loose ball home with a trademark reverse stick shot.

In the fifty-second minute, South drew probably the best save of the match from the St Ives keeper, as they went about trying to reverse those seven minutes of madness. Andy Rose drove a ball in from the left, Alex touched it towards the centre of goal, then Nick deflected it at the bottom left corner from close range, the keeper showing lightening reactions to kick the ball out for a long corner.

With time running out, St Ives began to sit back and try to hold onto their lead. This invited South on to them and, in the sixty-third minute, South took advantage to level. Francois Lemoine picked up a loose ball on the left flank, and cracked a good cross across the face of goal. Nick Wong's reactions were sharper than his markers, and he got to the ball at the back post to turn it home.

As a draw was of little use to either side, play now got stretched into an end-to-end affair, and in the sixty-sixth minute South won a short corner. Finally, a routine functioned completely smoothly, giving Chris Baker the time to aim his drive at the bottom right corner of the net and put South back into the lead they had so carelessly lost.

With so little time remaining, St Ives threw bodies forwards to try and equalise, but the best chance of the remaining time came South's way when a flowing counter attack begun by Rob Garrett went via Alex, Phil and Chris down the right wing and saw Alex played in for a shot. The St Ives keeper returned to the theme of the first half with a good block and Nick couldn't turn the rebound onto the target.

A few more desperate attempts by St Ives were comfortably thwarted by the South defence, and that first league win was secured. Captain for the day Andy Rose's post match comment was "We wanted it more", and your correspondent agrees that the way the team fought back to win, after seemingly having let a very winnable match slip, was a positive. Now to translate that one win into a run of them…