South stepped out into the bright sunshine as the new season finally got underway.

A steely, almost silent warmup suggested the squad were focused, visualising, engaged, or perhaps just still half asleep; you can never quite tell.

The teams entered the pitch to some useful advice from a spectator: ‘get the ball, pass it and score’. Sound stuff. And so we did.

South dominated the first half with many chances and turnovers high up the pitch. Towards the break some strong buildup culminated in Jim breaking into the D top right and passing back to Maz, who smashed home on the reverse to the far corner. Some real South American quality and flair to break the deadlock.

Sutton broke back early in the second with a good goal after a high pitch turnover, which seemed to switch South back on. After a couple of chances at both ends, Henry broke through midfield and got wiped by the visiting keeper to win a penalty stroke. Steve (J) put it away top left to move back to 2-1.

Sutton kept coming and equalised through a strong short corner flick, which surprised everyone as the previous efforts had been somewhat tame. In the following minutes Mark headed the ball away during a goalmouth scramble and Eric had a strong shout for a goal waved away for dangerous play, having been chested off the line by a defender.

With 2 mins to go South played a series of 1-2s through midfield and Steve W headed through to top D. The visiting keeper had clearly overdone the sugar on his breakfast cornflakes, rushing dangerously again from goal to wipe him out. Jacko backed himself with a p-flick straight down the middle to close out the win.

MoM: Jacko for the 2 flicks.

Lemon: Stu for falling over in slow motion and passing to their strikers to keep everyone on their toes