A friendly…at 5pm…away from home: truly, this was a test of the enthusiasm for a new Men’s 6s at Cambridge South and one we just about passed, in the end.

The start was not auspicious though. Howard had managed to scratch together a bare eleven but fifteen minutes after the scheduled meet time there were only five people standing in the Long Road car park. After a quick mental run through of the team sheet and travel arrangements we concluded we had everyone we were expecting and set off. Halfway down the M11 a check of the actual team sheet showed us we’d forgotten about Yuning, who duly turned up a few minutes after we departed - getting on for twenty minutes after the meet time - to find the car park empty.

Fortunately our five included a late recruit, Scott Catley, so we figured we should still have a team. By push back though we had been augmented only by club debutant, Pete, keeper Naka and Ian: eight was significantly short of a side. As we were preparing to steal most of Stortford’s subs, Andy T and Alan arrived in the nick of time. Still no sign of James Raikes though, but at least we needed to borrow only one player now. As it turned out the fixture played out without any sign of James, which duly spared Yuning what had seemed an inevitable Lemon.

The game itself, played straight after the 1s’ goalless draw on Stortford’s new surface, turned out to be worth the effort though. The home side’s expected mix of youth and experience were a stiff test for South’s mostly more seasoned players. Pete - the third new Pete to feature for the club in the past few weeks: did someone order a job lot? - put South ahead with a goal on his debut, knocking home from close range. His hard work, tenacity on the ball and chasing down created several more opportunities for South but none could be taken. The score was levelled before half time when Alan, who with Garth had up until that point largely mopped up any attacks that broke through, managed to get a foot on a Stortford shot heading wide to divert it magnificently beyond Naka.

All square then, and another thirty-five minutes of chasing teenagers around the pitch with no substitutes to look forward to. Oh good. A slight re-jig from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 seemed to tighten things up a bit in the second period for us and the game continued as a tight to-and-fro contest. A few half chances were created for Pete and Andy T up front by Scott and Neil, in an unconventional central midfield partnership, but the Stortford keeper stood firm when called on, as did Naka at the other end on a couple of occasions. The deadlock was finally broken by maurauding right midfielder, Ian, to restore the visitors’ advantage. With the clock counting down and Stortford pressing to find an equaliser, Ian struck again to seal the result with a beautifully timed run across goal in front of a defender to meet an incoming ball and give it the slightest of deflections past the wrong-footed keeper.

A very enjoyable game all round, with the result the cherry on the cake. It was a quick shower and departure back to Cambridge for the team socials, with encouraging words from Stortford about arranging a return fixture at Long Road in the near future. We look forward to it.