Reports 10 Sept 2011
Men's 1s narrowly lose to rivals City
Men's 3rds lose their first warm-up friendly
Men's 3rds / 4ths beat Newmarket
Ladies' 2nds concede a walkover
Cambridge South Men's I 1 - 2 Cambridge City III
H/T: 0 - 1
Scorers: Simon Ta
MoM: Tom Watson
LoM: Simon Ta (For financial and timekeeping irregularity)
Its always the little things that get forgotten. Like collecting the keys to get into St Catz grounds...
Still, after blocking up most of Grantchester Road for half an hour, we eventually made it onto the beach *ahem* I mean pitch. Cambridge City, despite finishing 4th in the division above us last season, showed no complacency and were obviously taking this meeting seriously (word must have gotten out about our skillz...), putting us to shame with their rigorous warm-up. Which, as it turned out was ironic, as we then proceeded to put them to shame with our rigorous match-play.
Having gotten away quite lightly on TheWeekendWhenEveryoneGotMarried, South 1s were only missing the (used to be) ever-dependable Williams in center-mid and any sort of a recognized sweeper. After a long pre-match discussion on who should sweep (during which even the name 'Johnson' was uttered...) Sinclair manfully stepped up - and duly put in an assured performance at the heart of every defensive moment and the start or every attacking one. Right from the first whistle South looked more organised and creative. Pretty soon City were resorting to heaving aerials to get the ball out of their defence. Watson and Johnson were harrying well up front, Virdi was snapping at the heels of his opposite number all game and Chalk was intercepting and distributing like a man on a mission. It was all looking good. City were worried. So of course we went and conceded a goal. A slight mix-up in defence allowed the City front line in. Parker saved the first shot but with no-one on hand to clear the rebound, the City attacker promptly stuck it in the back of our net.
Twenty minutes into the game and South were still looking the better team, mopping up City's indecisive passes and attempted dribbles and mounting our own attacks with pace. It was only our decision making (as Sinclair pointed out in the post-match analysis) that let us down, with some beautiful passes going into empty space and some less-beautiful passes going into City sticks. With most of the 1st half gone, Ta decided it was probably time to make an appearance at the pitch. With Ta coming on at center-forward with fresh legs South suddenly had someone getting into those empty spaces to collect the balls played through by Hawkes, Chalk and Virdi. Shortly before half-time South broke through, when Ta pounced on the ball in the D and from the tightest of angles somehow managed to squeeze the ball through an invisible gap between the keeper and the post. 1-1 at half-time and our tails were up.
The second half was punctuated with the odd moment of solid passing play with Aston in particular looking assured, some surging runs down the left wing from Watson and some incisive tackling from the likes of Hawkes, Read and Wych. But mostly South stuggled to put it all together, resulting in a disappointing lack of real chances. The frustration was evident and indeed the umpires nearly stopped the clock at one point as South players scrambled to pick up all the toys that Aston had thrown out of his pram following some more imaginative defending from Chalk. Honourable 'Lemon' mention to both of them for that particular incident!
Just when we thought a draw might be a fair result, City caught the South defence on the back foot and, after a quick couple of passes, the winger ran the ball into the D and slotted it past the onrushing Parker. South continued to push forward from the restart, searching for another equalizer. Eventually a short corner was won (South's first of the match) and the final whistle went - signalling this would be the last play of the game. With a great track record from shorts, there was an air of expectancy. This was definitely going in. No doubt about it. Except that McCulloch injected the ball to the wrong stopper, Virdi had to improvise, and the resulting shot, although stingingly powerful, was too high. If only we hadn't listened to our coach about that 'Double Castle' short-corner routine...
All banter aside, South can be encouraged that City (on paper a stronger side) struggled for large periods of the game against us. With a settled side (hopefully including the sublime Sinclair!) we should be turning these good passages of play into goals. A great effort from everyone in what was an exhausting 70 minutes of hockey!
Team played: Steve Parker, Dave Aston, George Wych, Jack Chalk, Bhavdeep Virdi, Tom Watson, Russell Johnson, Al Sinclair, Eliot Read, John Hawkes, Graham McCulloch, Simon Ta
Cambridge South Men's II 2 - 5 Saffron Walden II
H/T: 1 - 2
Scorers: Al Edge, Rob Barton
LoM: Ron Oren
Awaiting Report
Team played: Shahbaz Ali, Ron Oren, Dom Nelson, Rich Morgan, Andy Passmore, Tom Anns, Jonny Deacon, Nick Venner, Al Edge, Chris Walsh, Colin Troll, Rob Barton
Cambridge South Men's III v Blueharts V
Match cancelled after Blueharts failed to raise a team.
Cambridge South Men's IV 5 - 3 Newmarket II
H/T: 3 - 1
Scorers: Dave Monck, Paul South, John Greaves (2), James Raikes
MoM: Chris Collinson (When the opposition had more chances than we did and we won 5:3..........Another mature performance)
South started with the a 4:3:3 formation against a strong looking Newmarket side. First goal was scored by South from a move down the right with the ball ended up left side of the goal on Paul South's reverse stick, who duly scored with a reverse stick shot. John Greaves then scored 1 to make it 2:0, but the author some how missed that. Richard M scored one from a short corner, but that was disallowed.
Newmarket had numerous chances and were dominating larger proportion of the possession. They managed to get one back via some good passing amongst their forwards. South changed their formation to 4:4:2 in order to get more control of the midfield. We were rewarded with a 3rd goal just before half time with James Raikes applying the finish after some neat passing, again down the right.
The second half saw South taking more control of the midfield with the commendable Ian Marshman proving more than a match for the younger Newmarket players.
Notably young Nathan's speed took him past the older defender once or twice. In one run, after spectacularly going past a defender, he was darting goal-wards when a late stick tackle foiled him. The half was "shared" with 2 goals from each side. South scorers were John Greaves and Davenport Monck from a short corner.
Hope more 3rds and 4ths players can turn out from next week.
Team played: Chris Collinson, John Benedikz, Jan Brynjolfsson, Richard Marley, Ky Ho, Neil Sneade, Dave Monck, Tom South, Paul South, Ian Marshman, Nathan Monck, John Greaves, James Raikes
Cambridge South Ladies' I 3 - 7 Spalding Ladies I
Scorers: Laura Jarvis, Bex Baker, Leonie O'Donnell
Another weekend saw a mixture of players from the 1s and 2s line up to put in a strong performance against a well-practiced Spalding side. The game was hard work and defensively demanding but we put up a good fight until the end. The score-line doesn’t fully reflect the game as a whole although we certainly deserved the 3 goals scored - all coming from good structured play and persistence to land the ball on the back board. We struggled to keep our share of the possession in our attacking half - in part due to a hefty presence in the Spalding mid/attack - but encouraging nonetheless that the few breaks we did have (and short corners too) came from - and led too - some lovely passing sequences.
Considering the strength of the Spalding attack and our newly synthesised defence line up, South did well at the back under considerable pressure that lasted for the duration of the game. MOTM wasn’t done this weekend but I think everyone put in a grand effort - especially as we don’t play together regularly. The ball didn’t find its way to her much in the first half but making up for this later in the 2nd half Bex put in a memorable flurry of super -slick skills to dodge her defender on the left wing and open up our attack. And then she did it again soon after. Georgie put in a heap of leg work in the middle even after trekking across Spain (!). Laura made another good impression as a new player to the club but I’d like to make a particular mention to Lou G, Claire, Becca and Ali at the back for 1) persisting for 70 minutes in your defensive efforts against an equally persistent attack and 2) putting up with me nagging about marking!!
Plenty to look forward to as the season is only just beginning. So South, onwards and upwards!
Team played: Louise Gutteridge, Becca Graveling, Lindsey Berends, Laura Jarvis, Jo Read, Georgie Hurford, Claire Sherwood, Ali Graham, Alice Hug, Bex Baker, Ash Price, Leonie O'Donnell
Cambridge South Ladies' II 0 - 3 Spalding Ladies II
Match cancelled as South were unable to raise a team.
