Men's 1sts lose to Bishop's Stortford 2nds

Cambridge South emerged onto a brilliantly sunny pitch after the vast majority of the squad travelled though pouring rain to get to the meet all on time for once, despite our illustrious leader being forced to cower in a pavilion down the road to escape the downpour and then being asked to apply the coup de-grace to an unfortunate rabbit on the way to the game. Guest staring in the sweeper role this week was Ron Oren with Manu Bhardwaj also making a welcome return to the side at short notice at right back despite being slightly worse for wear...

South started the game poorly as a Stortford player was allowed to run through the entire team only to fluff his shot on goal. Unfortunately this let off was not a large enough warning for South as minutes later another player was helped on his way into the D by several South feet to score a simple finish against the exposed keeper. This finally got South fired up for the game and they began to put together some decent moves through the forwards Claes, McCulloch and Johnson.

Once again the home teams short corner defence was unbreakable despite having only 3/5ths of last weeks team. However it was Stortford who scored again after an unmarked player was allowed to stroll into the D and take a shot. Parker was equal to this but it was a Stortford player who reacted to the rebound quickest and he bundled the ball home under little pressure from the South defence.

South got back into the half as the forward line forced a short corner by continually pressing the Stortford defence. McCulloch injected well and Hawkes played the ball back to McCulloch's favourite spot allowing him to simply sweep it into the goal... or the defender on the lines foot - penalty flick. Chalk eager to make up for his last effort from the spot despatched the stroke as Aston was still trying to convince the captain to promote him to stroke taker. The remaining five minutes of the half were uneventful.

With their captains half time cry of “if we can't win this game lets at least get up their arses” still ringing in their ears South decided it would be a good idea to win the game. Passes became firmer and straight to sticks and when the ball was turned over a South player was always on hand to hassle their opposite number. This was typified by Virdi, who constricted the play of the opposition like a python every time they came within striking range. Read also made many firm tackles in this period and also found the time to stake a claim to the title of 1st XI aerialist with a couple delightful balls over the top. Hawkes was so inspired he unleashed a training only special and did not shed a single tear as he watched his shiny new ball fly over the back fence after taking a deflection on the way to a sure goal. Unfortunately Stortford got another shot off and whilst Parker was equal to it, the ball fell to Stortford player once again, 3-1.

This served only to fire up South more and led by telling runs from Hawkes and Virdi they took the game to the opposition once again. Chalk took a blow to the ankle in a battle for the ball in the midfield and from the resultant bully Virdi was able to play the ball back and round so that Claes could make one of his trade-mark mazy runs. After running round the whole of the opponents final quarter he was unceremoniously sandwiched between two players, resulting in a flat Claes and flick number two. Chalk again despatched the stroke. Virdi then nearly made it 3 all when a shimmy took him past a player and allowed him to unleash a thunderous rising shot that their keeper did well to get a glove to.

South were on the attack again as Johnson slipped it to McCulloch who burst into the D, drew the keeper then squared the ball to the unmarked Chalk who ended up face down on the ground as he was about to apply the finish - stroke number 3? - nope advantage taken! Even as the pitch was cleared of the numerous toys thrown by first McCulloch then Chalk over this decision. Stortford broke again and scored another rebound after Parker made the initial save. The less said about the last few minutes the better as South struggled to find each others sticks and generally gave the ball away to the opponents. This was exemplified when Read was forced to belt the ball past his own post as a safer option than passing to any of his team.

Stortford won a final short and the whistle went. A well executed move lead to the ball been bundled home after the initial shot was once again saved. Hopefully South have got all the sloppy play out of their system and can look forward to the league starting against Ely next week.

Comments

You must be logged in to comment.

If you haven't created an account yet, you can sign up here.

Bhav Virdi
Player of the Match

The Menace of Midfield

Graham McCulloch
Lemon of the Match

Dubious word-selection in the half-time team talk.