On a late afternoon, the 5^th team once again took to the field against the local youth team of Cambridge University. As predicted, the opposition were young, fit and fast so we would have to adapt accordingly.

South didn't start well by gifting Uni a free attack in our 23 meter area, which led them to exert concerted pressure for the first 10 minutes.

Once we had recovered ourselves, South started playing our usual short touch passing game, leading to some unexpected breaks against the university side. Unfortunately speed and fitness started to show and with some nice interplay, Uni took the lead. South continued to hold out but were unfortunate to receive several short corners against them which after a goalmouth scramble, the university added another one.

Joe was playing exceedingly well in goal but even he cannot be in two places at once, and a rebound fell to a university player making it 3-0. 

South then decided to start playing, as we always like to give the opposition a cushion. Good use of the width and the midfield released both Simon Jelly and Gabe to put concerted pressure on the university side, who were seemingly not expecting this from South. However once again, a swift counter attack by the Uni side on the South defence led to a fourth goal just before half time.

The second-half was a very different story. Both sides battled hard in midfield for loose ball, with South often coming off the better leading to concerted pressure and the South short corner. This was saved by the university keeper but was one of South best attacks so far. Gabe ran his socks off, using a space to go round the university players, and then nearly scoring a one-on-one with the keeper. 

Unfortunately that allusive goal for the South team never quite happened, but they can be proud of their performance. Let's keep that spirit going into the next game.