Sand. It's coarse, it's rough and it gets everywhere.   Kettering's pitch was so sandy that we might still be finding remnants from this match in our kit bags the next time we face Kettering at home. How we choose to remember this game is ours to decide - plenty to celebrate, and more than enough for us to ruminate on as we tackle the season.

Kettering pressed high from the off and were quicker to our sand-softened passes round the back, keeping us pinned in and often struggling to find our way forward. Tempers rose from both sides, resulting in a green for South - the umpires living by the phrase, ask and ye shall receive, sending Willow off for politely requesting a card for some opposition's indiscretion. Nevertheless a few breaks came, with credible scoring opportunities that we were perhaps guilty of forgetting about in the halftime chat, including a last-gasp goal line clearance from their defense to maintain a nervy parity. 

The second half was filled with strong scoring chances that never quite made it to the back of the net, for whatever reason... It took some improvisation off a short corner to finally get on the board, Pearson making a smart run to back post to finally get the ball over the line.

It was a difficult game with which to open the season. Kettering knew their environment well and frustrated our efforts to implement our newly crafted system.

Nevertheless we shouldn't discount the successes we had in the game. A badger told me, Kettering reaped 21 of 28 available points from home games last season [Ed - query the maths here... 28 does not divide by 3. 11 x 3 = 33 available points, surely?], including taking points from the 2 teams promoted from this division. Despite our defensive frustrations, we kept them to just a small handful of credible goalscoring opportunities. Had we found the net sooner, we may have opened the pressure valve on the game. Let's not forget that creating so many chances is itself an accomplishment, especially for the first official outing of a new formation and a new captain & coach. It's working!

Honourable LOM mentions: Willow's impressive goal evasions, Mark sending an aerial to the moon, and our new Captain going to the wrong pitch on his first game in post. 
But, the crown goes to Alex - so keen was he to start his first match for South 1st XI, he forgot put his shin pads on.

MOM was a closer affair, but ultimately Alex wears the crown! Despite his earlier gaffe he put on a strong debut performance up the left wing, beating several players even when pressed tight against the sideline.