Reports 8th November 2008

Men's 1st XI's away match with Boston I is postponed

Men's 3rd XI lose 5-1 away to St Neots III

Men's 4th XI consolidate their league position with a 1-0 win over Spalding IV

Ladies' 1st XI play out a 0-0 draw with Market Deeping I

Ladies' 2nd XI suffer an 8-0 defeat to Saffron Walden III

 

Boston Men's I p - p Cambridge South Men's I

Postponed due to pitch being rendered unplayable by mud

 

St Neots Men's III 5 - 1 Cambridge South Men's III

H/T: 2 - 1

Scorers: Andy Lewis
MoM: Ian Evans - solid defending against strong and fast forwards. Stuck to his role and position and overcame knee injury to play at all

A game which, in the end, was settled by the team which played to their strengths, overcoming the effort and individual forays of the other team. St Neots used their combination of wily and beefy defence and midfield and rapid, skilful young forwards to break down the dogged Cambridge South.

The first half was relatively even, with two well taken St Neots goals offset by a simple Greaves and Lewis short corner routine, with Andy Lewis's unstoppable shot smashing into the back board. South did have other chances, with Rob Barton and Andy Lewis both coming close on a few occasions, but there were always too many defenders and a good goalkeeper to beat.

South suffered in the second half through three key injuries: Creed (pulled muscle), South (ditto) and Greaves (getting a bang on his foot, which at the time was twelve inches off the ground just in time to connect with a fast-travelling ball coming out of the St Neots defence). This last injury was by far the most dramatic, or at least the writhing around on the ground until the free hit was awarded was worthy of a "5.9".

All this excitement failed to distract St Neots from plundering three goals in the last five minutes to give an unrealisticly one sided scoreline. This was unfair on the otherwise stalwart defence of Glover, Passmore, Evans and Lee, who had stuck to their task well up to that point.

This game showed that effort and individual skills are not going to be enough at this level to beat well-drilled teams, using speed of thought and speed of ball to sap our strengths.

As always at St Neots, the match teas were good.

Team played: Shahbaz Ali, Andy Passmore, Ian Evans, James Lee, Ian Glover, John Greaves (c), Andy Lewis, Paul South, Wilco Dijkstra, Kevin Rowland, Rob Barton, Stuart Creed

 

Cambridge South Men's IV 1 - 0 Spalding Men's IV

H/T: 0 - 0

Scorers: Dom Nelson
MoM: Tim Dean - who added more solidity to the defence and made a number of good runs up the line; Dom Nelson - for his goal and his work rate
LoM: Phil Le Gouais - see the report!

Having beaten Spalding 5ths by the narrow margin of 1-0 away a few weeks ago, it was difficult to know what to expect of their 4th team. South started by having a 'proper' warm up as James Hodge started to exert his authority.

South decided to play the now familiar Premiership style 4-5-1 formation by packing the midfield. This did lead to South winning a lot of the possession even though, occasionally, players were literally tripping over one another. South dominated the first half with a number of chances to score but were unable to convert any of them. Notably, James R missed another one of his (in)famous reverse stick flicks and put it just wide.

In the South goal, Phil Le Gouais, on the other hand, had very little to do except for one shot on goal in the entire first half. The Spalding forward flicked at goal and the ball bounced off the South keeper and tantalisingly away, just wide of the keeper's left post. At the end of the game the entire team was still puzzled as to which part of his body Phil saved the shot with!

The second half started with James Hodge deciding to take a rest and his absence was very much noticed as Spalding started to play more in South's half. Spalding were looking the more likely to score by winning a number of short corners but the South defence somehow held on and the forwards even managed the odd counter attack.

It was during this period of Spalding pressure that South won a free hit five yards outside the Spalding D. A sharply drilled in hit was turned in by Dom Nelson to make the score 1-0. Shahzad was also on hand to make absolutely sure.

The remainder of the half was quite even and South had further chances, while at the same time having to defend. South nearly managed to repeat a carbon copy of the first goal but this time Dom swivelled and mistimed the shot. Another highlight was the umpires stopping the game in the middle of the second half to wait for the flood lights to switch on as it got dangerously dark!

It was a good performance as the team continues to gel and 1-0 doesn't quite reflect how well the team played.

Team played: Phil Le Gouais, David Bridge, Ky Ho, John Sharp, Simon Jelley, Shyam Sadasivan, James Hodge (c), Dom Nelson, James Raikes, Shahzad Ali, James Groom, Tim Dean, John Somerville

 

Market Deeping Ladies' I 0 - 0 Cambridge South Ladies' I

H/T: 0 - 0

Scorers:
MoM:

Awaiting report

Team played: Sarah Massen, Alice Wall, Mel Harrison, Jane Gillanders, Julie Sadler, Tash Cox, Liles Dee, Georgie Hurford, Caroline Dent, Jenny Furlow, Kelly Charman

 

Cambridge South Ladies' II 0 - 8 Saffron Walden Ladies' III

H/T: 0 - 3

Scorers:
MoM: Tracey Hunter

Another murkey Cambridge Saturday morning and the 2nd XI met at the Cambridge University astroturf pitch off Wilberforce Road ready to take on Saffron Walden 3rds. With a nearly full strength squad and a couple of guest stars on the starting line-up, hopes were high to break the losing run of the last few weeks. However, we knew we would have to work extra hard as we unfortunately did not have the luxury of subs.

To summarise…Walden managed to break through our strong defence and scored quickly in the first half, which affected confidence. Tracey, Loopy in goal, Lou G, Sarah A and relative new-comer Kristy all battled hard in defence. However, Walden's hard hitting and clever passing proved too much and we finished the second half 3-0 down. To top things off, the heavens opened and the rains fell!!!!

After a sharp talking to at half time by captain-turned-coach Vicky and some advice from more experienced players Emma and Jodee, we were ready to battle once again and confident that we could pull back the gap.

The second half started strongly however many factors led to the onslaught of goals that were to come. We had a couple of good runs up the right wing with Bex doing stern work and chasing every ball, as well as a few breaks through the left midfield from Jodee up to Emma. We also managed to get an elusive short corner awarded!! Well, not to go into too much detail, Walden went on the score three more, with a further two unfortunately deflected off our defenders sticks. So as the full time whistle blew, the valiant Southerners were left to reflect upon what went wrong.

The general consensus was that we didn't actually play as bad as the disastrous score line would suggest. Walden were a strong side who are apparently rampaging up the league (currently in 2nd place with a goal difference of 32. However, key issues were people passing but not looking for the opportunities to pass, free hits at sixteens and good communication should also be improved, as we have stopped talking to each other throughout the game. Overall, we are a new squad who are just starting to get to know each other's styles of play so hopefully with more experience and emphasis on certain skills we can get back to winning ways!!!

Team played: Lou Tonkin, Tracey Hunter, Sarah Aves, Louise Gutteridge, Kristy Taylor, Jodee Webb, Ros Shattock, Leonie Dickman, Pip Noon, Emma Clarke, Bex Baker

 

Reports 12th November 2008

 

Men's Indoor continue their strong form, winning 4-1 against North & South

 

Cambridge South Men's Indoor 4 - 1 North & South

H/T: 2 - 0

Scorers: Al Sinclair (2), Rob Garrett (2)

In departing captain Rupert Webb's last Indoor game for Cambridge South, the squad wanted to send him off with a good result that would effectively ensure South's qualification for the semi-finals stage of the Indoor League play-offs.

Though South took a while to find the net, it became clear early on that they were going to dominate the play and that North & South could be limited if the right pressure was put on their best player and his options were restricted by cautious marking.

A string of near misses should have seen a greater score line in South's favour than the 2-0 advantage they took into the half-time break.

Despite North & South raising their tempo to begin the second half, another goal apiece from Sinclair and Garrett took South to an unassailable lead and ensured that Rupert leaves the Indoor team in a healthy state, even though his foraging surges forward as a striker late in the game were in vain as he sought a fairytale ending by adding to the scoreline.

South now look forward to a final league game against new skipper Rich Morgan's Perse Under-16 side, before embarking upon the play-off stages for the first time.

Team played: Steve Parker, Rich Morgan, Rupert Webb, Chris Massey, Al Sinclair, Matt Readman, Tim Clapp, Rob Garrett, James Cobbe