South 1sts, sponsored by PwC, were given notice of the sort of levels they will need to play at if they want to be competitive in Division 3NW by a well-drilled Spalding team.

The hosts had got off to a flying start, opening the scoring within the first five minutes when their first short-corner routine deflected off a South defensive body, wrong footing keeper Jon Price. Though Jon did well to make an initial scrambling save, it only broke to a home forward, who was on hand to pop the loose ball home from close range.

South responded by quickly forcing a short of their own, and were agonisingly close to equalising. The ball was worked left to teenager Finn Johnson, on his first team debut, and Finn's sweet shot looked goalbound until a deflection off the tight of the home keeper sent the ball little more than a centimetre wide. Another close run thing came when a Rich Morgan sideline hit from the right was banged into Finn in central midfield. Finn slapped a first time through ball, which split the home defence but was unfortunately just too strong for Rupert Webb, through one-on-one on the home net, to reach.

The second half saw Spalding start strongly, forcing a short within 10 seconds, and they never let up. A decisive second was added on 50 minutes when a player was left unmarked on the penalty spot, and he lifted the ball over Jon. A deflating goal.

South kept pushing, with Lukas Snetler prominent for his hard work in midfield and Chris Graveling and Jim Thorpe going on some mazy forward runs. Amongst this, a chance was created for Jack Chalk, with just the keeper to beat. Unfortunately Jack aimed his shot for the near post, and dragged it just wide. A goal didn’t look likely.

Pushing up had left us exposed at the back, and it was Jon who was finding himself the busier of the two goalkeepers. Even so, Spalding's third and fourth goals were partly the result of shooting ourselves in the foot, as sloppy passing between defenders saw balls being stolen and attackers through outnumbering defenders.

Captain Chris Baker's post-match chat was concerned about both the fitness of his team after they were overrun in the second half, and working together as a team in training to get structures right. Most of important of these may prove to be fitness, especially in view of the goals leaked near the end on Saturday, which could be ascribed to tired muscles leading to fatigued decision making. 3NW is clearly a substantially faster, tougher league than the division below, and merely relying on training on Tuesdays and matches on Saturdays is not going to see players fit enough to cope with its demands…