If this match were a war movie, it'd be "Kelly's Heroes": that classic tale of a daring raid into enemy territory against strong opposition to grab the loot and scarper.

South's Dirty Dozen (to mix war movie metaphors for a moment) were venturing into unknown terrain, with few having played at Peterborough's Bushfield pitch before. Consequently, there was some confusion over directions with Kev "Kelly" Rowland and Dave "Babra" Aston both managing to take the scenic route despite each having sat-nav. Babra's determined disregard for any instructions issued by his electronic navigator and penchant for repeatedly circling roundabouts were sufficient to wrap up the Lemon award before even arriving at the ground.

Aware that Bourne don't tend to travel well, South were expecting a much sterner test than the 6-1 victory in the home fixture before Christmas and so it proved. From the push-back, Bourne's mix of canny, senior players and fast, tricky youngsters forced South to work hard to establish a foothold in the game. With a fluid formation and a front line interchanging and attacking from deep, Bourne were making it difficult for South's defence to pick up and close down the oppositon's forwards. As attackers ran through the middle, sweeper Dave "Big Joe" Monck was repeatedly required to make the saving tackle. At full back, Neil "Little Joe" Sneade and Ron "Oddball" Oren were fully occupied with Bourne's mobile wingers and finding it difficult to support South's wide players going forward.

Bourne's threats almost bore fruit when one of their speedy forwards coming in from the right found a gap near the top of the D and dispatched a crisp, firm strike. Rising awkwardly at knee height, it brought a brilliant improvised save from The Cat in South's goal as he stooped to palm the ball wide. Up front, South's best outlets were being limited to Big Joe's Herculean hits into the wide channels for forwards Rob "Moriarty" Barton and Mark "Cowboy" Pears to chase down.

As the half wore on, South began to get to grips with Bourne's mobile play and establish a platform for their own attacks. The introduction of Chris G's cool skills in midfield helped South consolidate possession and Babra on the left and Stocky on the right started to make inroads down the wings to turn the Bourne defence. A free hit outside the opposition's D was frustratingly wasted when a communication breakdown between Chris and Oddball resulted in the ball being knocked straight over the back line. South made better use of a short corner as a smooth injection from Cowboy and a clean strike from Big Joe forced the Bourne keeper to save smartly with his left foot.

So, all-square at half time but South knew with a big push, some positive waves and a bit of fortune, the prize was there for the taking. Galvanised, South upped their game in the second period. Aided by Kelly's superb job of blocking the midfield runners who had caused so many problems in the first half, South were looking more dangerous. The contest remained close all over the pitch however, with vice-captain George "Crapgame" Wych and the rest of the defence having to work hard to screen Lino's goal from Bourne's attacks, including Little Joe finding himself hurtling bodily backwards through the air as he was flattened by a full-body check from Bourne's solidly built centre forward.

As the game entered the last quarter, South's increasingly penetrating wide play earned a series of short corners. With ten minutes left on the clock, one of the shorts was slipped quickly by Cowboy to Babra on the left of the D. His strike caught the outrushing defenders off guard and, as it arrowed towards the goal, the inrushing Cowboy added the slightest of deflections to ensure it beat the keeper, leaving the home team stunned.

A goal to the good, South refocused and the final ten minutes were played out in the same closely contested, up-tempo manner as the rest of the match. Despite Bourne's efforts to grab the equaliser, South kept their heads and saw out the time to depart with the prized three points from their smash-and-grab raid, all the sweeter for being so hard-won. After the match, captain Kev said "We were a different team in the second half and need to start matches like that to avoid such close contests. And if anyone calls me 'Kelly' Rowland, I'll deck them."