Reports 3rd October 2009
Men's 1sts go top of the League with a victory at Market Deeping.
Men's 2nds beat Spalding 2 in a very close game at the Leys.
Men's 3rds grind out a one-nil win at St Ives 4
Men's 4ths lose a close game at St Neots 5
Ladies' 1sts win by Walkover as March Town 1 fail to raise a team.
Ladies' 2nds take a fine win at Ely
Market Deeping II 0 - 4 Cambridge South Men's I
H/T: 0 - 3
Scorers: Sanjay Agarwala, Chris Baker, Mark Pears (2)
MoM: Mark Pears
South followed up last weeks's comfortable victory over City of Peterborough V with an assured performance against Market Deeping II to take three points and head Division 3NW after the first two rounds of matches.
A well-balanced South side immediately created chances and the Deeping keeper, who saw plenty of action throughout, was twice called upon in the first five minutes, beating down a shot following a giveaway to the predatory Mark Pears and then blocking Russell Johnson on the doorstep. HMS Jim Thorpe made light of the gale-force conditions, sailing ahead in full billow, while Rob Garrett repeatedly troubled the home defence, once cutting back from the right to test the keeper and give Johnson a rebound opportunity which went just wide. Close stick control and a slick through pass from the classy Chris Baker again forced Deeping's last man to be proactive on the edge of the D, but he was finally stranded when a short corner won after Baker's later mazy dribble was slipped to the left for Pears to flick high into the net.
The visitors doubled their lead after 20 minutes when Thorpe, who had earlier artfully allowed a direct pass through his legs to feed South's waiting left wing, drove the ball imperiously upfield, where Pears collected on the reverse, tipped round the marooned defender and waited for the psychological moment before sliding home a very neat goal as the keeper was forced to commit.
Chris Graveling, mixing the robustly physical and the delicately aesthetic, picked off the few Deeping attacks with aplomb, aided by the always solid Leo Tomita and Nick Young, whilst providing swift feed to the midfield and wings. As the half drew to a close, Deeping marked the South right more closely but there was plenty of firepower elsewhere and both Lukas Snetler and Eliot Read, who worked hard and unselfishly, had efforts that narrowly missed or were saved. Three minutes before the break, following South's fourth short corner, Johnson hit the post after the ball had ping-ponged mercilessly round the D and Baker was on hand, as so often, to ram the ball without ceremony into the middle of the goal.
Deeping started the second half vigorously, forcing Young into an excellent diving tackle and allowing Tomita to demonstrate how to floor an attacker without doing anything (terribly) illegal. Garrett wisely tracked back to help out, Thorpe extricated himself from a couple of hassles and the ubiquitous Graveling won some space with his magnetic-ball-on-a-stick circling trick. Gradually, the initiative was regained as South began to call, and deliver, the shots again. Chances fell to Pears, Johnson and the busy Snetler but these were all stopped, and when the keeper was eventually rounded by Pears, a Deeping duo were back on the line to shepherd the ball away.
The home side had their first real opportunity after 53 minutes, when a good run by their persistent right-winger set up a striker in the D, but the lifted shot flew wide. Immediately afterwards, South countered with their sixth short, a neat slip to the right which was crossed back for the tea-cosied Sanjay Agarwala to fire home via a slight defensive deflection. Agarwala was then the prime mover in a sequence which ended with a Snetler reverse being blocked, a moment of déjà vu coming a minute later after another penalty corner.
Deeping then broke dangerously free up front in their best move of the match but Steve Parker timed his tackle to perfection, advancing to the edge of the D and robbing the lone attacker with customary prestidigitatory skill. The hosts, thus encouraged, exerted more pressure but South coped well, with Young and Garrett making precise interceptions and Agarwala pumping hard out of defence. Tomita also brought off a big stop and, after Graveling had seen his flicked short blocked, Sir Thorpe calmly rescued a late giveaway and Snapper Read raced in like a ferret to make two late tackles and earn the shut-out.
This will by no means be the strongest team that South have to face - next week's opponents, Wisbech II, are traditionally awkward opponents and have had two decent wins so far as well - but in terms of developing team cohesion and a systematic approach, Saturday was a further valuable step on the road.
Team played: Steve Parker, Leo Tomita, Jim Thorpe, Nick Young, Chris Graveling, Eliot Read, Russell Johnson, Rob Garrett, Sanjay Agarwala, Chris Baker, Lukas Snetler, Mark Pears
Cambridge South Men's II 2 - 1 Spalding II
H/T: 1 - 1
Scorers: Matt Readman, Ali Ward
MoM: George Wych (Fantastic strong reverse stick tackling on the right of the defence.)
LOM: Dave Aston (For disrespecting "the sacred tin" and for public littering.)
Cambridge South 2's set out on a very blustery early afternoon for what was expected to be a difficult match Spalding 2nd XI.
Despite having a strong side on paper, things looked bleak at the outset when sweeper Nick Bristowe called in sick, and South's strongest opponent of the season, the A14 traffic, again displayed its true form by holding up keeper Shabhaz Ali on his way from the 3rds match.
However, all 12 players arrived in time for the start of what would be a very scrappy match. After the initial early exchanges, Spalding took the lead when a move down their left was cut back to be swept past Shabhaz's dive at the near post.
The opposition goal however sparked South into life. Chances came and went, including a fine save from the Spalding keeper when faced with a one-on one against Graham McCulloch. South were finishing the first half the stronger of the two teams, and it was no surprise when South equalised. A ball was slipped to new signing Ally Ward on the left in the opposition area, who finished with aplomb past the keeper at the near post to put South level at the break.
At half time, captain Dave Aston was preparing himself for a Caesar-like rally of his troops to send them out for the second half. However, a selfish hurricane ruined this potential life-changing moment, and sent Dave's well-prepared notes scattering across the pitch.
South re-emerged for the second half hoping to be re-energised by the goal, but it was Spalding who re-started the stronger. The opposition had a lot of the ball in the South half, but some fine tackling from the defensive four ensured that Spalding were only limited to half chances. When the opposition did break through South's back line, a fine save from Shabhaz Ali at his near post ensured the scores remained level at 1-1.
Up the other end, as the half progressed, South's forward play and aggression (most notably from Bhav Virdee!) certainly unsettled the opposition. A few crosses from Bhav and Kev into the opposition D created havoc, and a strong Monckasaurus shot from a short corner was deflected wide by a defensive stick.
Into the last five minutes, and South were still causing problems for the opposition defence. From a long corner, the ball found its way to Matt “the engine” Readman on the left hand side of the D. Matt did the rest. A fine swept finish into the top right corner sent South ecstatic. South still needed to hang on for the last 5 minutes, but they defended heroically, and came away with a 2-1 victory. Once again, all the team worked their socks off to win a very tough match. This leaves South with 6 points from 2 games, a fantastic start to life in Division 4NW!
Team played: Shahbaz Ali, Manu Bhardwaj, Dave Monck, George Wych, Bhavdeep Virdi, Dave Aston, Kev Rowland, Matt Readman, Graham McCulloch, Rob Barton, Ali Ward
St Ives IV 0 - 1 Cambridge South Men's III
H/T: 0 - 1
Scorers: Andy Lewis
MoM: Simon Jelley (and the rest of the defence. Keeping St Ives out with brave, sensible and decisive tackling, harrying and no sign of fa???ying about.)
Another good result gound out against a skillful St Ives team against whom we shared the points last season. The defence of PassmoreJellyLeeBenedikzSnead held firm throughout, with Simon Jelly particularly making life hard for St Ives forwards. CSouth took the lead with a pinpoint effort from distance by Andy Lewis designed to confuse the keeper by hitting the post and then spinning slowly over the line.
After half time St Ives had most of the ball but the away defence stood firm, keeping out the numerous short corners, so that Shabhaz had very few saves to make. Eventually CSouth gained the upper hand with Stu Creed and Paul South frequently at the heart of things as always. St Ives got increasingly frantic in search of the equaliser,leaving space for a number of good CSouth passing moves, which went unrewarded with shots passing agonisingly close to the post, each time the wrong side, with the keeper beaten.
It was good to see every one of the 14 players playing their part, substituting seamlessly, and keeping going to the end for an excellent win.
Team played: Shahbaz Ali, Neil Sneade, John Benedikz, James Lee, Andy Passmore, Matt Kern, James Hodge, Paul South, Stu Creed, Andy Lewis, Wilco Dijkstra, Simon Jelley, Rupert Espley, John Greaves
St Neots V 1 - 0 Cambridge South Men's IV
H/T: 0 - 0
Scorers: None
MoM: Sam Lansdell
LOM: Ky Ho (Organised the team, got the goal keeper's kit - then got stuck in traffic and forgot to bring his stick bag Special thanks to Ian Glover for doing the GK job.)
South arrived one player less than intended as Manish got lost The first half was a bit of a forgettable affair when neither of the goal keepers had anything to do. South lost John Taylor after 20 minutes with a pulled muscle and the team had to be reorganised, but everyone did their job in their positions.
The second half started with St Neots scoring more or less from the start as they managed to confused the South defence by bring on a brand new player in attack. The goal galvanised the team and South strung together a number of chances with Ian Evans playing in the defensive midfield role orchestrating a lot of the play. Sam Lansdell stopped everything that came through the centre. St Neots's goal keeper managed to keep out all South's chances. In the end it was a good game and the 'core' of the 4th team started to play better together.
Team played: Shahbaz Ali, Ian Glover, Ian Evans, Ky Ho, John Sharp, John Taylor, David Doupe, Sam Lansdell, Boris Lossy, Dan Lam, Shahzad Ali, James Raikes
Cambridge South Ladies' I 3 - 0 March Town I
H/T: ? - ?
Scorers:
Ladies' 1sts win by Walkover as March Town 1 fail to raise a team.
Team played: TBA
Ely III 0 - 4 Cambridge South Ladies' II
H/T: 0 - 2
Scorers: Charlie Orrock, Bex Baker (2)
Cambridge South had a brilliant game for their second match of the season and a lot of new faces! Johnny and Ian babysat the team's little Mel mascott (with her warm farmers' hat!) and there were even a herd of cows watching the game from over the fence!!
The first half started off well with Sarah, Lotty and Lou not being challenged too much in defence. The midfield of Vicky, Ley and Breeshey had their work cut out feeding lots of balls up to the attack with good width from Lyn on the right. By half-time, South were 2-0 up (goals by Charlie and Bex). Breeshey managed to out-run everyone on the pitch and fed the forwards dozens of good balls which could/should have been goal opportunities!
Kendra came on after half-time and immediately scored, before supplying an amazing cross for Bex to shoot another goal. The midfield continued to relentlessly pressure Ely and provide a solid link in South's team. Lizzie had a fairly quiet first half but saved every shot on goal from the second half, and Tracey cleared any threatening balls that came the defence's way.
Team played: Lizzy Day, Lottie Ritchie, Tracey Hunter, Louise Gutteridge, Sarah Aves, Breeshey Harkin, Lyn Wood, Leonie Dickman, Vicky Lavis, Kendra Butlin, Charlie Orrock, Bex Baker