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!