This weekend’s fixture against Kettering will be memorable for all sorts of reasons, not least that as a team the M5s probably played one of the best games we have seen in their brief history.

After a nervous first ten minutes and an early goal from the visitors, the mixture of M5 regulars, drop downs from the M4s and new faces started to gel, with defence, midfield and forwards working in harmony. This despite the forward line having a combined age of around one hundred and sixty-five (that must be a record – Jan?) And it was one of those sprightly OAPs, Paul S, who bagged an early equaliser!

Spurred on by this the home team found another gear with Nick G, Avi S, Wilco and Jelley dominating the midfield and creating plenty of scoring opportunities for the elderly (…sorry ‘experienced’) forwards. Eventually one cross found ‘young’ Mr Barton perfectly positioned on the far post to clock up his 400^th South goal in trademark calm and collected style. Definitely a momentous moment for all present although his celebration which began well before the ball actually crossed the line won him LoM!

Not content with goal number four hundred, Rob managed to produce a neat little flick from close to the baseline to make an early start towards the next major milestone of five hundred goals!

The opposition continued to press hard but the defence of Pete D, James P and Howard S, marshalled by Pete J, along with keeper Matt SG held strong to give us a comfortable win over second in the table Kettering.

MoM…who else could it be but ‘400 Goal Barton’.