As Nomads could not raise a full team, this became a friendly, with South raising a full team of 15 and also lending 4 players to Nomads to even things up.  We avoided a massive potential lemon (a grapefruit??) [editor: a citron?], since there was only one GK kit in the senior shed, and on careful inspection this was due to be used by the L5 away at Bourne Deeping, which meant it couldn’t be used by Dan for the M6 at the same time.  This meant South were down 1 keeper!  But Ben Lye stepped up at short notice to fill the shot-stopper role, making sure he got all of the oppo goals out of the way before his own clean sheet later that day in the M4 match that mattered.

Nomads have turned into a development side on the cusp of the game, which means that South may not get even the three points for a walkover!  However, this meant that their side was packed with youngsters and one experienced player, which was packed out with Wilco, Howard, Nick and Dan.  With Club Chairman Greaves out with Madagascar lurgy, Baz took charge of the team as captain.  South lined up in the now-classic 4-3-3, with a midfield triangle, wing-backs and wingers placed to exploit the gaps.  But it was Nomads who found the first gap, scoring from a short corner.  They repeated the trick towards the end of the first half, with a drive down South’s left and a cut-in from the goal line, to make it 0-2 going in to half-time.

The second half fared no better for South, with another goal conceded, and unable to find many chances on goal, until winning a short corner.  The first short led directly to a second short, and South pressure was beginning to tell, leading up to Stu beating the Nomads keeper with a deft flick, only to see it stopped and cleared on the line by Dan, promptly winning lemon for South by stopping the clearest scoring chance of the match for his own side.  Nev, Paul and Stu all went close in the second half, and all of Alex, Gabe, Lachie, Henry, Tom and Daniel did South proud in some of their first senior games for the club, a great thing to see, with Alex winning a deserved MoM for all round top-notch play.  This was also Matt Langley’s first game for the club after getting married – great to have Matt with us!

It’s great news to see so many wanting to take the field for South, so many in fact that we’re going to have to rotate players to give everyone a game.  On to next week, to take on Newmarket development, and aim for that first win of the season.