The M5s put in our best performance so far in the league this season, gaining increasing command to ultimately cruise to a comfortable victory at St. Neots.

The first half was relatively close, with South mostly on the front foot, penning the Saints in though their rare counter-attacks did carry some threat. What we needed was goals from the pressure. Roland thought he had opened the scoring for us with a second strike from a penalty corner that was rifled into the top corner, only for his effort to be chalked off for an off-the-ball infringement. But the reprieve for the Saints was only temporary as Rob Barton struck home another set piece via a defensive stick to have us 1-0 up at the break.

The interval talk was two-fold. Firstly, that the next couple of goals would decide the game – if we got them both to move 3-0 up then we were in a great positions and the Saints heads would likely drop. If they got either then we were going to find ourselves drawn into a battle in a game that we had dominated but not put to bed. The other main point was centre-forward Nev feeling hard done by in the minutes he had got on the pitch in the first half. Little did he (and we) know that this was all part of Jo’s subtle motivational plan (wheels within wheels)…

Nev was unleashed after the break you see, bounding around the place with steam pouring from his ears. It explains how, after a swift counter, Nev was waiting in position on the far post to touch home from Kieran’s *ahem* reverse stick assist (shot skewed off-target!) to make it 2-0. Nev was also on hand when Jo went for sleight-of-hand again, pretending (*ahem* again) to duff a short corner injection, which dawdled towards to the top of the circle, encouraging the Saints runners to congregate on to Stu. Their proximity meant Stu was able to eliminate them with a single pass to Nev at left slip, who had all the time in the world to set himself before flicking into the far top corner.

Nev return the favour for the fourth, swopping to intercept a badly misjudged pass across the back from the Saints rearguard. He drew the sole remaining defender and then squared to Stu on the back post, who was able to slap the ball into the exposed far corner of the net. Our fifth owed a deal to over-enthusiasm on the Saints part, early breaks from their defenders at a penalty corner costing them not one but two defenders. Their goalie and the two remaining players were so heavily outnumbered that South still scored, Jo eventually forcing home from close range, despite the routine not being the cleanest we have ever produced.

It could and really should have been more. Bartonez must still be having nightmares about the two chances that went begging, particularly the second one that appeared to be a tap-in to the open goal but went … wide. Ordinarily such jug avoidance would have been a shoe-in for Lemon, but on this day it was kit issues that took it with Sandy’s misplaced stick considered slightly more outré than Rock’s Ken Dodd impersonation.