Cambridge South M5’s took the 3pm slot at Long Road for a warm end of Summer game against Kettering 4’s.  Kettering showed up quite early and were keen to get warmed up.  Skipper Nev won the toss and decided to go with the Sun in the first half as he felt it may get better as the evening set in.  South were bolstered by Will R and a decent compliment of 14 players, so there should be no excuses this week.

The game started and it was an even midfield battle with the “experienced” trio of Nev W, Rob H and Will R (supplemented by Stu C), working the sinews and older bones hard to grab a foothold in the game.  This ultimately paid of when the skipper drove through and found Etienne B on the wing.  His angle slap found Jude P at the back post, who turned and slotted masterfully over the diving Kettering goalkeeper to give South a lead on 15 minutes.  The lead almost doubled when Henry O sent a high (almost goal-hanging) Rob B through 1-on-1.  Rob beat the goalkeeper, but unfortunately lofted his reverse stick effort wide.  The half-remained goal-less, mainly due to Ben L repelling about 8 similar short corners from the opposition, and Andy M’s magnificence in clearing from the pads.

Half -time message was to regain composure and improve passing accuracy.  There was Haribo provided by Vice Captain Rob, and he remained steadfast in not throwing them around as per the opening game’s citrussy moment.

Afte feeling he was well clear of being Lemon from his herculean 1^st half effort.  Rob B then tried to get innovative with is push back.  Rather than knocking it backwards to the relevant safety of the veteran midfield, he decided that he was releasing Jude P on the left wing.  Unfortunately, Jude didn’t have any clue about the impromptu pass, and it rolled slowly off the sideline in a painful manner.

South contained the game much more in the second half with shorter and more intricate passing and moving.  Lots of overlapping runs from James H (probably having slightly more energy than the previous home match) and Nuwan C allowed the M5’s to pierce the circle and win a good many short corners.  Rob B desperate to make up for his push back, turned skilfully on the top of the circle and reverse swept the ball goalwards.  Although the keeper made a great save, the ball bounced kindly to the alert Jude P to march the ball and flick into an empty net.  2-0 to the good guys and the hard work of all of the team showing that by trying harder, winning tackles and making intelligent passes will improve the chance of winning dramatically.  South finally sealed the victory with just over ten minutes to go with Rob B richly rewarded for his attacking play on the day. A short corner was rolled to the top and he crafted a blistering strike into the near corner that the keeper could only get a glance on.

South win a very competitive game that allowed both teams to showcase their excellent youngsters and not past-it older chaps.  One final nice tidbit, was at the final whistle, the Kettering Captain approached Skipper Nev W and said “Congratulations!  We haven’t lost a game of hockey in 584 days!”.  A very kind gesture of acknowledgement indeed, M5's now last beaten 7 Days ago!