South met at Long Road fresh off the back of a 9-1 victory and full of confidence to play a side that we knew would be our first real test for a while.

From the opening push-back things were looking good, with no early aerials to the opposition and subsequent conceded goals, learning from our mistakes last week.

Wisbech, however, were clearly up for it too with a point to prove. And took their first proper chance in the game, a penalty corner straight down the middle of the D and into the back of the goal. 1-0 Wisbech.

South replied quickly after with Oli knocking a great ball across the D to Andy at back post for a tap-in. One of the many reasons he ended up with his well-deserved MOM award. Scores level at 1-1.

During the second half things started to heat up, with Wisbech opting for a hybrid approach to hockey, throwing some heavy body-weight tackles in. After a quick google, to check if hockey is still classed as a non-contact sport, it appears as though the following definition was written as a direct result of our game. Technically, field hockey is considered a non-contact sport, but the truth is that some contact is unavoidable. You won’t play or watch field hockey without seeing some bodily contact between the players. This is why various methods are employed to ensure field hockey remains a non-contact sport. (Stickhandling Pro, 2022).

As things continued to boil over, I went in for what I believed to be a ‘fair tackle’ to find that immediately after, both umpires were trying to award me a straight yellow card despite my protests! With South down to 10 men, it was always going to be difficult to see out the game and Wisbech capitalised on this by converting another short corner towards the end of the game. Despite South pulling the goalie with 2 mins left of the game, they were unable to score again, and the game ended 2-1 Wisbech.

Another noticeable mention goes to Jimbo with a ‘route-one’ clearance, straight into the knee of an away supporting spectator. This was bad enough on its own but made even worse when someone mentioned she was pregnant and was lucky that ‘it was only her knee’.

So onwards and upwards, there's still plenty of hockey to be played this season and plenty of chances to get the points we need. Brush this one off and get back to the performances shown against St Neots and Peterborough.