A game of two halves. Cambridge South 3rds, sponsored by PwC, lost the first one decisively due to sloppy marking, giving the ball away too easily, and allowing the star playmaker of the Spalding team to run rings round them. Three of Spalding's first half goals came from short corners, with a catalogue of deflections off defenders' anatomies making it difficult for the keeper to save. CSouth had few chances, as their attacks broke down outside the D, but Tom Rosselli got close to a great goal, arriving at speed by the post as the Spalding defence assumed the ball was going out of play, only to fail by a whisker to make contact.

Moving on...

The second half was much more even, as CSouth, with a reshuffled formation, built some good attacks, often involving the lively Simon Ta, who was unlucky to have a good goal disallowed, and could have had others. Suk Pannu in central midfield continued to be at the centre of many attacks and was tireless and positive throughout. Spalding did get one goal, but the excellent Shahbaz kept out shot after shot, and became ever more aggressive with his kicks. Finally the away team got a deserved consolation goal from the final short corner of the game, as Joe Williamson deflected a Greaves strike round the keeper at the far post.

Hopefully this game was a hiccough, as CSouth fell foul of a slick Spalding side containing some wily hockey players used to higher leagues, but the second half performance showed that they can compete at that level, and with discipline, match a team with more ball skills.