A late pushback away in sunny Wisbech saw a strong line up of keen M4s lads take on a historically abrasive side. After an ankle-risking warm up on the crumbling asphalt of a neighbouring squash club parking lot, Captain Danny gave an inspiring speech. It was a true captain’s speech… perhaps from the heart of one who has seen the lowest of lows in a previous life in a sewer, who has since risen to great things after serendipitously finding an abandoned captain’s armband. 

South started strong, with the majority of the possession in the opposition’s half. Having pressed Wisbech to their own 25, Jordan transferred the ball across from the left to Shin on the right, who slid it to a keen Ben B run (all the forwards were full of beans today, making it very easy for us, and hellish for their defence), took on a defender to enter the D by performing a trademark squeeze-lift elimination move before finding Jamie who calmly slid it home under the keeper for our first goal. Soon after, Ben B turned from assist-wiz to goal scorer by adding to our tally. Having had a number of short corners our way (one of which was over-turned, and 16 given against us for taking too long, much to our surprise), we finally converted to seal the victory following a straight strike from Shin. 

Defensively, we were pretty tight, bar a few chaotic moments. Towards the end of the game, after we lost four of five 50:50s in quick succession, they broke and a good finish allowed the hard-working opponents a consolation goal. 

Overall, everyone played their part in a solid team win, with keen running and positivity all round. Upon the final whistle, the team consensus was that we could and arguably should have scored twice what we did as we certainly crafted our chances. 

Noteworthy incidents involve Andy W of all players being warned by the ref for throwing muay-thai elbows at players twice his size, the two Matts having an uncharacteristic moment of communication fission, which nearly went nuclear (a bobbly Vincent M defensive side-line ball to a slight mis-trap by Matt K on our P-spot led to our GK, Matt N, screaming “MATTTTT’S” as he rushed off his goal line in an attempt to clear the ball away, only for Matt K to yoink the ball away and dribble under pressure, facing our now-open goal. Fortunately, we didn’t concede from this rare comedy of errors). Will B had his first call-up for the M4s and had a stoic game under Wisbech pressure. Thomas G, Kieran B and Ben B had especially strong individual performances which earned them a joint men of the match award, with votes in a 3-way tie. Prior to the game, the M4s at Long Road had congregated for lifts by the bikes, and Shin pulled up beside them, only to be hastily advised that he was not allowed to park there by the keen, eagle-eyed groundsman, who’d make a good umpire for sure. This won him the coveted lemon award.