South 3rds, sponsored by PwC, were unlucky to come out second best in a closely fought game at St Neots.

The action was end-to-end from the beginning, typified by the opening goal. A South attack broke down in the St Neots D and the ball was shifted on to the home side's left winger. He made a lung-busting run the length of the pitch, rounded South's right-back, John Sharp, and suprised keeper Jon Price with a shot in at the near post.

St Neots doubled their lead in the opening minute of the second half when an aerial ball into the D was correctly ruled to be safe by the Umpires, allowing the home centre-forward to pick up, open his body up and apply a classy flicked finish into the corner of the net.

As South got more energetic, they started to lose control of themselves in the tackle, resulting in the umpires feeling obliged to reach for the cards. To be fair, the efforts were enthusiastic rather than malicious, but this period culminated in Matt Kern being dispatched to the sin-bin for two poor tackles within ten minutes. Despite this, there was very little bad feeling in the game, as typified by the appeal from the St Neots captain of "Don't be too harsh, umps", as they were talking to Kern.

Being down to ten men for a period seemed to inspirse South, and they dominated territory in the final fifteen minutes of the match. A goal was pulled back when Joe Williamson took a short corner slip and blasted home and South came within inches of equalising with the last touch of the game. A ball was fired across the home goal where John Horsley was lurking totally unmarked by the penalty spot. All that was needed was a touch, but Horsley's lunge for the ball was millimetres short of connecting, and so the game finished 2-1 to the home side.