Cambridge made the reasonable trip up to Peterborough with 11 men to face a team which were relegated from the division above last season and in the top two of the division this season with an unbeaten record.

The team were in confident mood after recent results, however the first 5 minutes saw us perhaps overconfident! Coach Colin’s advice on defending - urging us to leave plenty of space between oneself and the attacker, dummy-jabbing to keep their heads down, and perhaps merely channelling them, seemed to be ignored (or never heard). Stepping so close to the attackers let them turn us every time as we went diving in for every tackle, making stick tackles and giving away free hits and short corners.

The Cambridge midfield and attack were largely spectators as the P’boro attack continued to run at the South defense. After at least 4 short corners in the first 5 minutes P’boro finally converted one.

Then South decided to play properly. Really properly. (Perhaps it helped that we got to start play from the centre circle for the first time in the match).

Good passes were made to our own players, Rich was making his runs, and a short corner was won quickly.

New ‘big man’ Mariano stepped up to strike, the keeper saved - the rebound falling to Manu. Manu’s aerial shot was palmed down by the keeper ....to Rob, currently prematurely celebrating with arms in the air, who took hold of his stick again, to wind up and hit the ball through the gap into the backboard. 1-1

P’boro seemed disappointed that the seeming 10-0 that it looked like they were headed for on the basis of the first 5 minutes was not going to occur. They had no answer to the verve, energy and skill of Cambridge, who were now tenacious and more skilled in the tackle, and rampant going forward. A fine move down the right hand side involving Ian, Bav, and probably some others too, resulted in the ball played to Rich on the right hand side of top-D, from where he slipped past the right hand side of the defender trying to block him and seeing a number of options to pull back to chose Ian, rampaging all the way up from right back who swept home emphatically all in one flowing movement.

The P’boro coach was screaming many things at his players - their whole team shaken and being outplayed. Calm structured defending now from the unit at the back of Ian, Andy, Mariano and Ron snuffing out attacks and feeding South’s own attacks. South were playing mainly in the opponents half, but a third goal was not forthcoming.

Half-time . The second half was largely a story of stopping the attacks of a largely frustrated P’boro side, who came close a few times and fashioned many shorts which they could not convert, but South had their chances too as P’boro did not seem that solid at the back. A move through the centre led to Tom Watson, now playing at centre forward after picking up a somewhat immobilising knock, slipping the ball left through the D to Sanjay, who squared for Rob 2 metres from goal. The keeper went down flat, but with the net gaping for the simple lift over the keeper, Rob seemed to have contracted defenders’ disease this week, and with plenty of time for a big wind up smacked it into the prostrate keeper’s legs.

The drama continued - a ball given away by Sanjay from a sideline hit on the left led to a swift P’boro counter attack as South seemed pushed up very high. Somehow they squeezed a slowly rolling ball into our goal to equalise. A final short corner (no9?) was awarded to P’boro at the final whistle, and South’s defence heroically lined up against their 10 men, out psyching them and forcing them to miss yet again.

Both sides left slightly frustrated with the draw, but Cambridge are buoyed by the fact that they were once again equal to one of the top teams in the division, this time got points to show for it, and most importantly put in a great performance that we are collectively pleased with and that continues our weekly progress.