A rare match against a new opponent, we didn't really know how strong the Royston team would be as they don't play in our league region. The South team composition of roughly half M6s and half M5s was a best guess, though an unusual lineup that nobody was used to.

As play started it all seemed about right. We played actively, moving the ball around well and putting pressure on our opponents. On the other hand the other team moved well too, working hard to manufacture opportunities. One of these led to a short corner (how far is 5.468 yards anyway?) from which they eventually scored after an initial breakdown and a failure to cleanly clear the ball.

Ultimately we entered half time 0-1 down. Someone brought sweets which was nice. The feeling was broadly that we probably ought to do better at scoring some goals.

The second half saw a lot of back and forth, supported by a lot of energy from the South players. There may have been some opinions that we should keep hold of the ball better, although for comparison I heard the other team saying exactly the same thing about their own possession.

Importantly, all the back and forth was probably overall in South's favour leading to Ivo scoring a strong field goal...and then another a few minutes later! This boosted our enthusiasm, most notably expressed by Matt L's exciting backwards aerial onto the rugby pitch, for which he got LoM. To be fair, he also got MoM for the general quality of harrassing play contributing to all of the above.

We eventually drew properly ahead in another goal from (I think?) a short corner breakdown, well worked by Ivo but this time blocked by the keeper only to fall straight to George T waiting well-prepared for a good smack into the now-open goal.

The game ended on a short to the Royston team, the only one (of several) from which they scored directly - courtesy of a strong hit that found the gap it needed. Fortunately not enough to change the victor in the end.