Reports 15th January 2005
Men's 1st XI finally claim a league win, 4-3 over St Ives II
Men's 2nd XI are edged out 2-1 by Ely City II
Men's 3rd XI host Horncastle III for a 1-1 draw
Men's Veteran XI go down 2-0 to Bury St Edmunds Vets
Ladies' 1st XI win 1-0 against Cambridge Ladies' II
Cambridge South Men's I 4 - 3 St Ives Men's II
H/T: 1 - 0
Scorers: Ryan Thomas (2), Nick Wong, Chris Baker
South finally registered a first league win of the campaign, edging past St Ives 2nds in a game of wildly fluctuating momentum.
South's first half performance was one of their better efforts of the season and they could have had the game wrapped up by half-time, if not for the inspired form of the St Ives keeper.
The first clear chance came in the fifth minute, when Andy Rose won a tackle in midfield, moved the ball forwards to Alex Pooles, who slipped Nick Wong in, one-on-one. However the keeper was out fast and smothered Nick's shot. A minute later South came close again, when Phil Hunt played a ball down the left channel for Alex to sweep goalwards, again drawing a good save from the keeper. After ten minutes the St Ives keeper was at it again, making a high glove save to turn away Nick's flick of Phil's driven free hit.
St Ives had their first threatening moment of the match in the twelfth minute, when winning a short. keeper Anush Newman, making his South debut, saved the shot, only to see the ball get stuck under his pads for another short. From this, Anush again made a good save and the St Ives forward's attempt to knock in the rebound went wide.
After this slight scare, South went back on the attack and in the seventeenth minute created another good chance with a neat move. Nick picked up the ball on the right wing, beat his player with a typical spin move, swapped passes cleverly with Ryan Thomas, but again the shot was smothered by the onrushing keeper. Then, in the twenty-first minute, a South short corner was switched to Rob Hay on the right, his shot was blocked but ran free in the direction of Ryan, who just couldn't apply the finishing touch, the ball going wide.
Having tried sweeping moves and shorts, in the twenty-fifth minute South then attempted weight of numbers. After Phil had seen a shot blocked, Ryan lifted a reverse stick flick over the prone keeper, but the ball was cleared off the line as Nick threw himself at it in an attempt to force home.
After all these chances had come and gone, it was a relief when a goal finally arrived in the thirty-third minute. Another good driving run by Phil played in Alex down the right channel. His shot was half-blocked by the St Ives keeper but ran free to Ryan, arriving at the right place and right time, a yard out in the centre of the goal, from where he couldn’t miss.
In the final minute of the half, St Ives produce a rare threatening moment for the South defence, winning a short after a poor attempted tackle by centre back Rob Garrett. Again, Anush was equal to the driven shot, and the rebound went wide, leaving South one up at half time, but wondering whether it shouldn't have been more.
These worries should have been put to bed when South doubled their lead within the first fifteen seconds of the second half. From a St Ives push-back, Chris Baker made a good tackle and broke with the ball down the right-wing. He feed the ball into the D, where Nick jinked past his marker, only to have the ball taken off him by a tackle deliberately made with the back stick, prompting the St Ives umpire to award a penalty flick. Ryan took on the responsibility, and sent his flick high down the middle, giving the diving St Ives keeper no chance.
However, instead of giving South the cushion to go on to win the match, this goal appeared to breed some complacency. The defence of Mark Freer, Rob Garrett, Francois Lemoine and Rich Morgan, who had been so cool and comfortable in the first half, were suddenly under pressure with St Ives runners coming from all angles. In the forty-third minute, St Ives pulled one goal back when a runner down the right channel was allowed to get all the way to the byline. From there, a driven cross took an unfortunate deflection off a South body to fly high into the net, giving Anush no chance.
Then two minutes later, the scores were level, and forty minutes' good work had gone to waste. A ball was driven into the South D, ricocheted about for an agonising few seconds, wasn't cleared, and was eventually swept home by the familiar figure of former South vice-captain and top scorer Rob Barton, on his first return in St Ives colours. South's appeals for an infringement in the build-up fell on deaf ears.
South nearly retook the lead in the forty-seventh minute when a short corner was driven in by Rob Hay, and Alex added a neat flick, which unfortunately flashed over the bar. St Ives's reaction to this was to take the lead themselves three minutes later. An attack down the South left found a forward unmarked in the D. His shot drew a great save from Anush, but the ball ran free, and that man Barton again swept the loose ball home with a trademark reverse stick shot.
In the fifty-second minute, South drew probably the best save of the match from the St Ives keeper, as they went about trying to reverse those seven minutes of madness. Andy Rose drove a ball in from the left, Alex touched it towards the centre of goal, then Nick deflected it at the bottom left corner from close range, the keeper showing lightening reactions to kick the ball out for a long corner.
With time running out, St Ives began to sit back and try to hold onto their lead. This invited South on to them and, in the sixty-third minute, South took advantage to level. Francois Lemoine picked up a loose ball on the left flank, and cracked a good cross across the face of goal. Nick Wong's reactions were sharper than his markers, and he got to the ball at the back post to turn it home.
As a draw was of little use to either side, play now got stretched into an end-to-end affair, and in the sixty-sixth minute South won a short corner. Finally, a routine functioned completely smoothly, giving Chris Baker the time to aim his drive at the bottom right corner of the net and put South back into the lead they had so carelessly lost.
With so little time remaining, St Ives threw bodies forwards to try and equalise, but the best chance of the remaining time came South's way when a flowing counter attack begun by Rob Garrett went via Alex, Phil and Chris down the right wing and saw Alex played in for a shot. The St Ives keeper returned to the theme of the first half with a good block and Nick couldn't turn the rebound onto the target.
A few more desperate attempts by St Ives were comfortably thwarted by the South defence, and that first league win was secured. Captain for the day Andy Rose's post match comment was "We wanted it more", and your correspondent agrees that the way the team fought back to win, after seemingly having let a very winnable match slip, was a positive. Now to translate that one win into a run of them…
Ely City Men's II 2 - 1 Cambridge South Men's II
Scorers: Tony Wiskich
MoM: Sam Lansdell
We woz much better than recent weeks…
Defence were decisive, especially man of match Sam Lansdell at centre back. Midfield and attack were positive, and provided good variations and pressure. We had a good number of shots, and short corners, with Andy Lewis particularly unlucky.
We lasted the whole seventy minutes without conking out.
We got an excellent goal with a defence-splitting passing move, ending with midfield general Tony Wiskich slotting home past a completely wrong-footed keeper.
The trouble was that they got two.
Other than the result, this was an encouraging performance with everyone playing their part in almost matching the promotion-chasing Ely 2nds team.
Cambridge South Men's III 1 - 1 Horncastle Men's III
H/T: 1 - 0
Scorers: Andy Kennedy
MoM: Tom James - for brilliant defensive work. Honourable mention: Just about everyone! This is the best team work I’ve seen this season
South took the field thirsting for vengeance from an 11-1 drubbing at the hands of Horncastle back at the beginning of the season. Though South can stand disappointed at not bringing away the three points, they can hold their heads high after probably their best passing and tactical game played all season.
South started with an early advantage as one of the Horncastle players showed a bit of gender confusion and went to Perse Boys instead of Perse Girls, lending South a one man advantage for most of the first ten minutes. Some great set-up play from the Bridge brothers at left back and left mid began some easy breaks and it seemed that getting the ball anywhere near Andy Kennedy, as the other left mid, guaranteed the ball getting at least to the D.
Ten minutes in, and Horncastle cheekily started playing with a full team (the cads), getting themselves back into the game for a while. A bruising segment of the match calmed down when South found their width, finding bountiful space and passing opportunities in midfield. You could be forgiven for thinking that it was Arsene Wenger standing on the sidelines yelling advice, and not captain Rod Richardson, unfortunately sidelined with a serious case of the sniffles [Oy! – Ed].
After hammering the Horncastle D for a time, one of these sweeping actions finally paid off. Piecing together recollections, the ball seems to have covered the entire pitch, going via Ky Ho (sweeper), Steve Morrell (right back), Dave Scott (centre right mid), James Bridge (centre left mid) and finally on to Andy Kennedy (left mid), who decided against passing it around to Wilco or George and instead just went for plan B, whacking it into the corner of the goal from just inside the perimeter. On a good day for South, this kind of fluid passing action was happily proving the norm.
Horncastle fought back with gusto after this, laying siege to the South defence for a period with a rush of short corners. The shorts were coming so thick and fast that the South midfielders complained afterwards that their gallant efforts to sprint from the line to aid the defence, were starting to resemble a bleep test as they had to turn and run back as soon as they got halfway there, only to sprint again seconds later. Despite the barrage, the determined efforts of Tom James in goal, aided by the sticks (and on occasions, feet) of Ky Ho, David Bridge, Paul McIlwaine and Steve Morrell, maintained a clean sheet for the first half.
The second half continued even better for South, as the midfield of Andy, James, David Scott and Tim Gass moved the ball around with nary a piece of Horncastle wood getting to it. Wilco Dijkstra and George Bucknall continued to lay siege to the Horncastle keeper with support from the midfield, and came several times within inches of scoring, but to no joy.
In comparison to South's domination of the midfield, at the other end Horncastle were relying on long balls to try to release players on the break, but South's smothering of the forwards combined with Tom's heroics in goal denied any reward from these. Indeed, Horncastle's best two open play chances of the half came when a long ball found its way through a forest of feet and sticks and the forwards themselves were so surprised by the balls sudden emergence that nothing came of it.
Unfortunately the glut of short corners eventually paid off for Horncastle, and after an entire match of taking shots from the top if the D as soon as possible, the receiver finally changed tactics and passed the ball past Paul and Steve's sprint to the injector, who struck a powerful shot into the goal, taking the score to 1-1.
The remainder of the match was played out in tense scenes, as neither team wanted to give up such a hard fought game on an easy goal. Despite Cambridge's dominance of the midfield, the uprights and the goalie managed to keep the ball out of the Horncastle net, as both sides were hampered by an increasingly low sun blinding them.
In the end, hearts were in mouths as Horncastle's entire team came up for a match-ending short corner, but the homicidal charge of the South defence denied the visitors a potentially heart-breaking last minute winner. A 1-1 draw is better than a loss (though the complexities of this scoring system had to be explained to the author in the pub afterwards, as he didn't quite get this…), and things are only getting better for the team.
Bury St Edmunds Men's Veterans 2 - 0 Cambridge South Men's Veterans
Scorers:
No report
Cambridge South Ladies' I 1 - 0 Cambridge Ladies' II
H/T: 0 - 0
Scorers: Emma Clarke
The first league match after Christmas saw Cambridge South play host to near neighbours Cambridge Ladies. Their previous meeting had resulted in a 1-0 win for Ladies and South were looking for revenge as they felt that this had been an unlucky loss.
South took the first push back and after centre half Gemma Thomas had surprised captain Rachel Moyes with a square pass, South got themselves together and began to play some good hockey. They had several chances early on and only excellent saves by the Ladies goalkeeper prevented centre forward Tash Cox and right wing Rosie Dias from scoring. Ladies were solid in defence and kept on frustrating the South forwards. They made several breaks themselves which were dealt with expertly by the South defence and meant that goalkeeper Cassie Woodfin was rarely troubled.
After half time, South were looking to get the win and began to put some good passing movements together. However, time and again the ranks of Ladies defenders managed to keep South at bay, with their tactic of stacking several defenders one behind the other proving quite effective. South also had a number of short corners, including one great strike from Gemma Thomas that was turned away on the line by the Ladies' central defender.
Finally, five minutes before the end, the deadlock was broken. Gemma Thomas took a free hit from outside the D and drove a hard shot straight at goal which was turned in first time by left wing Emma Clarke. South then comfortably held out for the remaining time and were thrilled to gain a well deserved win.
This was a good start to the second half of the season and South will be looking to maintain this level of form for their remaining matches.