South took the field thirsting for vengeance from an 11-1 drubbing at the hands of Horncastle back at the beginning of the season. Though South can stand disappointed at not bringing away the three points, they can hold their heads high after probably their best passing and tactical game played all season.

South started with an early advantage as one of the Horncastle players showed a bit of gender confusion and went to Perse Boys instead of Perse Girls, lending South a one man advantage for most of the first ten minutes. Some great set-up play from the Bridge brothers at left back and left mid began some easy breaks and it seemed that getting the ball anywhere near Andy Kennedy, as the other left mid, guaranteed the ball getting at least to the D.

Ten minutes in, and Horncastle cheekily started playing with a full team (the cads), getting themselves back into the game for a while. A bruising segment of the match calmed down when South found their width, finding bountiful space and passing opportunities in midfield. You could be forgiven for thinking that it was Arsene Wenger standing on the sidelines yelling advice, and not captain Rod Richardson, unfortunately sidelined with a serious case of the sniffles [Oy! – Ed].

After hammering the Horncastle D for a time, one of these sweeping actions finally paid off. Piecing together recollections, the ball seems to have covered the entire pitch, going via Ky Ho (sweeper), Steve Morrell (right back), Dave Scott (centre right mid), James Bridge (centre left mid) and finally on to Andy Kennedy (left mid), who decided against passing it around to Wilco or George and instead just went for plan B, whacking it into the corner of the goal from just inside the perimeter. On a good day for South, this kind of fluid passing action was happily proving the norm.

Horncastle fought back with gusto after this, laying siege to the South defence for a period with a rush of short corners. The shorts were coming so thick and fast that the South midfielders complained afterwards that their gallant efforts to sprint from the line to aid the defence, were starting to resemble a bleep test as they had to turn and run back as soon as they got halfway there, only to sprint again seconds later. Despite the barrage, the determined efforts of Tom James in goal, aided by the sticks (and on occasions, feet) of Ky Ho, David Bridge, Paul McIlwaine and Steve Morrell, maintained a clean sheet for the first half.

The second half continued even better for South, as the midfield of Andy, James, David Scott and Tim Gass moved the ball around with nary a piece of Horncastle wood getting to it. Wilco Dijkstra and George Bucknall continued to lay siege to the Horncastle keeper with support from the midfield, and came several times within inches of scoring, but to no joy.

In comparison to South's domination of the midfield, at the other end Horncastle were relying on long balls to try to release players on the break, but South's smothering of the forwards combined with Tom's heroics in goal denied any reward from these. Indeed, Horncastle's best two open play chances of the half came when a long ball found its way through a forest of feet and sticks and the forwards themselves were so surprised by the balls sudden emergence that nothing came of it.

Unfortunately the glut of short corners eventually paid off for Horncastle, and after an entire match of taking shots from the top if the D as soon as possible, the receiver finally changed tactics and passed the ball past Paul and Steve's sprint to the injector, who struck a powerful shot into the goal, taking the score to 1-1.

The remainder of the match was played out in tense scenes, as neither team wanted to give up such a hard fought game on an easy goal. Despite Cambridge's dominance of the midfield, the uprights and the goalie managed to keep the ball out of the Horncastle net, as both sides were hampered by an increasingly low sun blinding them.

In the end, hearts were in mouths as Horncastle's entire team came up for a match-ending short corner, but the homicidal charge of the South defence denied the visitors a potentially heart-breaking last minute winner. A 1-1 draw is better than a loss (though the complexities of this scoring system had to be explained to the author in the pub afterwards, as he didn't quite get this…), and things are only getting better for the team.