After last week's Cup match, Cambridge South 1st XI are now left to concentrate on the league and next up were Rutland 2s who arrived in good time for a warm up but unfortunately an over-running previous game meant that neither team were able to get much pitch time before push back which lead to a particularly rusty first half to the game where both sides were guilty of misplaced passes and a general lack of cohesion.

Rutland started in confident form, moving the ball around and having the lion's share of possession for the first quarter. Solid defence from the familiar-looking Aston / Bristowe / Wych / Graveling / Read back line snuffed out most of the attacks and when Rutland did get through and force a short corner, Parker was equal to it and made a fantastic diving save low down to his right.

Eliot was also in fine form, making several superb interceptions and slowly the tide turned with South being able to put some sustained pressure on the Rutland goal. Both Mark Williams and Graham McCulloch had shots saved before a good move involving John Hawkes, Rich Claes and Russell Johnson led to the ball falling to Jack Chalk just a few feet outside the left hand side of the goal. Chalk is in such a rich vein of scoring this season that the result was never in doubt - one nil to South.

In the second half South played much better and had a number of chances before Dave Aston, playing a neat one-two with John on the edge of the D, forced his way into the area and fired an unstoppable rocket through a defender and past the despairing outstretched leg of the keeper. Fantastic goal .......... or at least that's how Dave described it to his girlfriend, but what really happened was this: the ball bounced off John's stick and fell to Dave just inside the area. Dave then scuffed a cross which dribbled slowly towards the goal. The keeper, thinking that the "shot" had been taken outside the area called "Leave It!" to the defender who duly did so and the keeper himself lifted his foot to let the ball into the goal where it came to rest just over the line but before hitting the backboard. Dave then let out a cry like a man passing a kidney stone and sprinted back to celebrate with his fellow defenders. Jammy goal maybe but a goal nonetheless; South had a precious 2 goal cushion and the spectators had something to recount to their grandchildren - an Aston goal.

The rest of the game was played out with a sense of unreality - had Dave Aston really scored a goal? Surely not, but the scoreline couldn't lie could it? Some time in the last 15 minutes John Hawkes made it 3-0 with a goal that I think might have been a great strike from the edge of the area, perhaps it was taken on the reverse, but to be honest that Aston goal really left me stunned so I remember very little about what happened, or indeed how I got home after the match.

I do, however, have a general recollection that it was a scrappy game in which South confirmed their title aspirations by playing poorly but still coming away with 3 points.