South matched up against Ely on a cold afternoon, hoping to notch up a victory before the Christmas break.

I would normally then go on to describe the first half. Nothing happened. Ely had two shorts. South had one. Steve touched the ball a couple of times. Mark had a reverse stick shot past the post. Bhav shouted a bit.

At half time, captain McCulloch gave the team a deserved rollocking- there wasn't much vigour or urgency in anybody, and you could forgive the poor spectators who'd come to watch had they fallen asleep.

After the break, South were re-energised: its amazing what Lucozade can do. After an initial short was snuffed out, SOuth built further attacks. A great run by Mark Williams up the left was followed by a reverse stick shot, which Rich Claes deflected in on the far post. 1-0, and the paltform for victory was in place.....

Or so it should have been. After last week's titanic defensive display at Peterborough, South got into the Christmas spirit by giftwrapping an equaliser to Ely. After an initial dangerous attack appeared to be snuffed out, South passed the ball directly to the Ely striker five yards out, who gratefully slotted home a goal my Grandma's neighbour's cat could have finished.

South were now in a game, but it was Ely with their tails up. A short corner was won for the home side and was nailed home into the bottom corner. 2-1.

South huffed and puffed til the end of the match, but to no avail. Ely saw out the game with relatively little danger of an equaliser, and South have now lost crucial ground on the leaders. The game against Bourn after Christmas now has added importance, as unless South win, their promotion hopes may yet be dashed for another year.

South did however put in an excellent performance in the post match teas lemon voting, with some of the following lemon votes standing out:

• Dave- for being Dave
• Graham- for picking Dave
• Nick- for being the "brussel sprout" of the team: only turning up at Christmas but generally offering little
• John- for Tuesday night's domestic abuse of Graham

Others available on request.