Cambridge South 2s held off some late pressure to record a 2-1 victory against Bishop Stortford 4s.

In a disjointed first half, all of the pace, passing and movement which had undone the 1sts earlier in the pre-season, and was on show again against Royston was missing. This was epitomised by the Stortford keeper spending much of the half sunbathing on the backboard and their sub pointing out to acting Kaptain Kev on one move which involved possibly the longest dribble outside a nursing home that "your right wing wanted that pass about half an hour ago".

Thankfully, Stortford weren't able to capitalise. A bit of last ditch defending, one sharp Shahbaz save from a snap shot and some loose short corners kept the score at 0-0.

Eventually South did manage to string more that two passes together, but only twice. The first resulted in the outside of the post being struck after Jack Chalk's good work around the back. The second ended in Bav striking the ball into the right side of an empty goal after the keeper and defenders had all been drawn left to give South a bit of an undeserved lead at the interval.

A half time barracking from Kaptain Kev paid dividends and a more fluid South woke up in the second half looking like the better side. A hustling Bav caught out the defence when he quickly fired a free hit into the path of an unmarked Rob Barton to make it 2-0. That should have put the game safe but the flood of goals didn't come.

A golden opportunity to make it 3-0 was spurned, and several other good chances became half chances when play dropped back to walking pace, and one short corner was reversed for time wasting. Whilst there was little to suggest they would get back into the game, that gave Stortford the incentive to up their game and eventually one of numerous short corners was slotted in at the near post to leave the score at 2 - 1. The last 5 minutes were an unnecessary frantic scramble.

If the win over the 1sts was champagne hockey, this was more like grape juice. Not vintage Cambridge South 2s, more brutish than Brut.

After the game acting Kaptain Kev revealed he had in fact sacrificed his Spurs v Man Utd ticket to captain the game, a decision which rather than earn rapturous applause from his comrades was deemed lemon worthy, despite Sanjay declaring to all and sundry that he had broken his hair band...