The Cambridge South 2nds juggernaut has been steadily gathering momentum over the first half of the season and St Neots 3rds became the latest team to fall beneath its mighty wheels. Faced with a late start at the Abbey, captain Kev Rowland called for an early meet to get everyone "in the zone". After a solid win over South 3rds the previous weekend, St Neots were a team that could be dangerous. A brief panic regarding the whereabouts of the shirts and subsequent questions, denials, accusations, protestations and recriminations was resolved when vice-captain George Wych found them lurking in his car boot.

With time for a pre-match pep talk of almost Baker-esque duration, Kev restrained himself to keeping it short and sweet: be switched on from the whistle, consolidate possession for the first ten minutes then turn up the pressure in attack. Amazingly, for once it seemed the 2nds had absorbed their captain's tactical plan and proceeded to execute it almost perfectly. From the push-back, possession was moved around South's back line and midfield for a dozen or more passes before St Neots got a sniff of the ball. The opening period was cagey, with South concentrating on possession rather than territory and St Neots taking the opportunity to push up into South's half. Keeping their heads, South retained their shape and denied St Neots any clear opportunity to attack keeper Lino Di Lorenzo's goal.

Having gained the measure of the game in the early exchanges, South upped the ante. Nick Bristowe and Kev provided a shield in the middle of the park as the ball was shipped out to Matt Kern and Dave Aston on the wings, who began making forward runs to turn the St Neots defence and play in Rob Barton and Mark Pears up front. As supply to the front pair was established, South moved the play towards the St Neots D. It didn't take long for the pressure to tell, with Rob Barton getting goal side of his marker to slot home the opening goal.

South were now moving into the ascendancy and this was quickly confirmed when more great linking play from the midfield to the forwards released Mark. With a turn of speed, Arsenal broke through the defence and shot home to double South's lead. Buoyed by their early lead, South were establishing their dominance all over the park, with the wide midfielders constantly looking to link to the forwards and full backs Ron Oren and Neil Sneade backing up the play. Newcomer Nick Young was having an outstanding debut at sweeper, choosing to play in front of centre back George and keeping the team on the front foot with his prompt sweeping up of anything that came through the midfield, timely tackling and strong hitting to turn defence quickly into attack.

St Neots were far from being overrun, however, and continued to show skill and determination in contesting the play, although largely unable to get close to South's D where Lino was mostly a spectator. Tellingly, not a single short corner was conceded by South in the first half.

Any doubt about the result was settled before half time as South succeeded in translating application into goals. Rob completed a first half hat trick, with his third particularly noteworthy as he carried the ball left to right across the D before shooting across the keeper and into the far corner from a tightening angle. Captain Kev, watching from the sidelines, didn't know whether to be more astonished by the speed of the hat trick or the fact that none of them had been scored with the reverse stick.

The half time team talk focused on continuing the good work and maintaining the pressure. Fired up, South were eager for more goals and didn’t need telling twice. Within minutes of the push-back, South extended their lead as Arsenal again left the defence trailing to score his second. Not to be outdone, Tim Clapp, on at right wing and having already caused all sorts of problems with his runs, chipped in with two goals of his own. His second came from a Rob Barton shot that was partially smothered by the keeper. As the ball inched glacially towards the line, Tim hesitated for a moment as he tried to judge whether it would cross the line ahead of a recovering defender before removing any doubt with a quick dispatch into the goal.

With a commanding lead, South felt able to open up and press the play up the pitch. Matt, now moved into the centre of midfield, was particularly notable for his excellent tackling and passing, repeatedly opening up St Neots with slide rule balls for the forwards to run on to. As the game moved into the last quarter, Rob added to his tally with another beautifully taken shot, lifted slightly off the deck to evade any blocking sticks before thudding into the backboard to bring the score to 8-0.

St Neots had refused to let their heads drop, however, and their persistence was rewarded by the award of their first short corner of the game. It was well executed and a shot was struck to Lino's left only to be blocked by Neil's stick, flat on the ground at the left post. With the keeper and onrushing attacker in front of him and lacking the space to sweep clear, Neil lifted his stick to push the ball away to the side just as a jab tackle came in, knocking the ball beneath his stick and on to his feet. It wasn't clear for a moment whether his feet were on or just behind the line but the uncertainty was resolved as the umpire blew to award a goal.

Stung, Kev called for concentration to get the goal back. His words would have carried more weight if he hadn't then immediately knocked the ball straight off the side of the pitch with a first time sweep from the push-back! South recovered their composure though and it was left to Arsenal to complete the second hat trick of the afternoon with a well taken goal from a very tight angle by the left back-line.

With the game won and legs tiring, more space was developing at both ends of the pitch. South were unfortunate when a raised ball from St Neots which hit Neil on the hand and deflected over the back-line was missed by the umpire and a corner was awarded instead of a hit. St Neots took full advantage with a quick ball hit hard into the D, where a St Neots forward got ahead of Ron's tackle to knock the ball past the stranded Lino.

At full time, South celebrated a convincing win and, just as importantly, probably their best performance of the season. Before heading off for match teas at The Master Mariner there was still time for Kev to cap the afternoon's entertainment by confusing his underarm spray with a can of Deep Heat. Ouch, that had to burn!

After the match, captain Kev commented "Well, anyone could mistake a can of Deep Heat for deodorant. Now, does anyone have an ice pack I can stick under my arm?"