The stage was set at Long Road. A blistering 11 degrees compared to previous weeks, thankfully with a light drizzle to keep our players heads cool (even in the event of dangerous baseball-like plays). In what could be likened to a David and Goliath scenario, Cambridge South Men's 3s took on March Town 1s in a match that promised to be an intense battle. 

Perhaps this drizzle kept our heads too cool. In many ways, this first half was more of a David-stubbing-his-toe-and-slingshotting-his-own-face -type situation. March were dominating (as expected by the top of the league) and quickly set up numerous attacks. The first of their short corners was an unstoppable dragflick in the lower left-hand corner, missing Tom Anns’ stick by a few inches. The relentless attacks continued, and despite Chris Walsh’s Herculean energy in the midfield (awarding him a man of the match award), we eventually conceded a second and a third goal with numerous saves by Ben Lye in between. Thankfully Anns heroic green-card worthy play (unintentional of course) kept us hopeful for the next half.

It seemed to have worked – while March quickly scored another goal despite a questionable Babe Ruth impression, South played a much tighter game in the second half. Had we managed to tire March out, or had we found some untapped energy levels to keep us in the game? Despite numerous attempts, South just about missed the mark with a number of wide shots. Some could say all was needed was a touch – but who am I to say, I was all the way back in the defensive line. Thankfully, one of our short corners found the mark thanks to a wonderful tap in by Joe Whittaker from George Anderson’s sweep. Rumours say it was top bins, but statistics may determine that this was a lie. 

The rest of the game was hard fought and we stayed at a solid 1-1, for a final score of 4-1 to March. While in this scenario David may have only grazed Goliath, South showed the world (or rather, East Division 3NW) that even the Philistine giant had weaknesses. A shame our 300 aerials weren’t enough to exploit them.