Ivo was meant to be writing this but there's no way his match report reaches me before Jan's 3 Pm deadline today which is a shame because in the pub his match report sounded quite good. So unfortunately you have me. 

Confession time - Since I began my journey through the perils of adult hockey I have had the unfortunate experience of being affected by a terrible curse including this Saturday I have been involved in 10  of what one could describe as a “cup final” style matches.
Until Saturday I had lost 9 of them so to finally break that curse so emphatically with the M5's best performance of the season right when it really mattered beating the opposition 0-5 in their own backyard was so incredibly satisfying. 

A dominant performance by South had them in total control within the first 5 minutes with a new short corner routine (constructed by Ash in the changing room) leading to a flick quickly dispatched by Chris. 

And then another short corner a couple of minutes later which resulted in Chris scoring again (6 goals none from open play) to put South 0-2 up and firmly in control within the opening 5 minutes. 

Goal three came from Ivo as the Bourne Deeping keeper shot off his line to smother Ivo before he could fire off his trademark reverse however the keeper forgot that hockey is a team game and was promptly passed around to allow Ivo to eventually get his reverse stick goal. 

Unfortunately, I missed Ash’s goal I was subbing off at the time so I'm not sure how that one actually went in. 

And the final goal of a failed short corner Riccardo managed to find a gap in between the keeper's legs to round off a great victory

Special mention to Max who played against his dad in this game perhaps starting a generational rivalry in his family.