The match began with a good omen: 3 hours of torrential rain miraculously cleared up right as the team began to assemble. Spirits were further heightened by the captain's amazing new substitution strategy, which unfortunately fell at the first hurdle as more players turned up than expected (an unusual problem...). Some swift reorganisation restored balance.

The game began with some good back and forth, but midway through the first half the omens turned bad in the form of a Newmarket ball in the South goal. Or perhaps at this point not so much an omen as a fact, a detail hammered home a few minutes later as the same thing happened again. Both goals were smoothly worked plays arising from heavy pressure in our half of the pitch. We weren't without our own chances as we applied some pressure of our own, notably a powerful but just-wide hit from Henry Greene, but nothing we were able to convert.

A half-time talk discussion on fixing our weak points led to a marked change in the second half of the match. Keeping our formation tight, we did a much better job of getting the ball up the pitch, making space to receive it in the opposing D, and then trying to manufacture a chance from fast injections that had South players expecting and ready to receive them. We were finally rewarded with a goal off the rebound from Wilco's initial short corner shot, John Greaves perfectly positioned to take advantage while the keeper was off balance...an important detail since when he was fully prepared we repeatedly failed to get anything past him!.

Unfortunately, despite keeping up the pressure for the rest of the game that was all we were able to muster, leaving the end result 2-1 but with many positives to reflect on. It isn't the first time we've felt we would have done better if the game went on just a little longer, but then we do know how long a match is so it's on us to bring that pressure a bit earlier. Our most important takeaway is that our tactics are working, some polish and practice will go a long way towards raising our chances on every one of those plays.

Man of the Match went to Daniel Galantini for exemplary forward wing play supporting many of our best opportunities, although reflecting the general high quality of the play almost as many votes were won by each of Jude Plumb, Dexter Smith, Lachie Shorrock and Gabriel Moore all for similar reasons - especially noteworthy for Jude and Dexter both playing their first league games.

On reflection, maybe the weather was a good omen for the opposing team too.

Oh, and feedback on the substitution strategy was "oh yes that seemed to work okay", so everyone can look forward to doing it again.