After taking a break from hockey in the second half of last week’s game South arrived fully refreshed this week to take on struggling local rivals Nomads M2s. It being well into Movember there was more facial hair on show than at a Mexican girls' school. Top prize for pogonotrophic effort went to Paresh, sporting the kind of luxuriant bush that Aston can only dream of. Laurie on the other hand was driven to the extreme of “forgetting” his shorts in the hope of distracting attention from his pre-pubescent soup strainer. The tactic did not work - see Lemon result above.

Nomads are bottom of league without a win to their name so South, still harbouring promotion aspirations, were looking for a comprehensive victory. That the game did not turn out like that is a credit to the opposition who showed a level of skill and pace in midfield and attack well above their League position. It all started out well; South were dominant in the first quarter, the midfield linking well with the forward line and the defence having little to do. Nomads were regularly gifting the ball back to South from 16s and a goal was inevitable. It came after about 10 minutes when Gareth received the ball just inside the D on the left post, he turned and fired a rocket of a shot at waist height into the goal. It was a good goal but nothing compared to the celebration which was magnificent.

South continued to press for a second goal and perhaps were guilty of a little complacency as more players were committed upfield and Nomads began to exploit the space behind midfield. Midway through the first half they won a few short corners, one of which was just about charged down by the South runners but the ball fell kindly for the Nomads forward to fire it just inside Parker’s right hand post and level the scores at 1-1.

The match was more open now; Nomads skilful midfielders were seeing more of the ball and creating some concern for the South defence. However, it was South who scored next when Laurie received the ball just outside the D and squeezed it through a melee of defenders to find Graham lurking on the P-spot to deflect the ball past the despairing keeper.

Surely South would now put the hammer down and finish off the game? Not a bit of it, Nomads came back strongly not just to equalise before half time when a midfielder dribbled through several defenders and passed to the centre forward who scored from an incredibly tight angle but then to take the lead shortly after the restart with a goal that I remember nothing about. Must have been a good one.

There was disbelief in the faces of the South players. 3-2 down against the bottom of the League with 25 minutes to play was not where we had expected to be. However, this squad is now confident in its ability to score in the last quarter (c/f Peterborough game) and if there was concern at being a goal down, there was certainly no panic. The defence tightened up the marking and this allowed the midfield more freedom to push forward. And the goals came in quick succession; first another from the officially prolific McCulloch, playing a magical deflection behind his back from Paresh’s cross and then 2 Claes Classics, using his pace to burn off the opposition and using the opponents’ body parts to deflect the ball into the goal.

So 3-2 down was converted to 4-3 up and there was still the best to come. From a Nomads attack cleared away by Graveling, South stormed up the field with a series of passes; Paresh to Finn to Graham to Gareth and then a neat square pass to Laurie who lifted the ball over the keeper. It was probably the best goal ever scored on a hockey pitch. And just to round off the day in style, captain McCulloch completed a hat-trick by thumping South’s 7th goal in from a tight angle in the dying minutes.

Somewhere in amongst that goal-fest Nomads got a consolation 4th goal when a firm shot was deflected off a South stick past Parker. They certainly deserved it, and probably more than just one; although the scoreline reads 7-4 to South, in fact the result was really in the balance for most of the match and South players left the pitch feeling slightly relieved that the 3 points were in the bag.