With a large squad at his disposal and plenty of post-glacial energy to tap into, it was no surprise that skipper Rob Garrett urged a game plan full of movement, running and early ball in his team talk and, indeed, there was no shortage of any of these as South, after weathering a couple of chances, gradually began to dominate. Steve Parker in goal made an early point-blank save from close range but, apart from a few long aerial balls that were skilfully absorbed by Matt Readman in particular, Deeping posed no great threat up front in the first half although they were organised in defence.

Early on, Chris Baker, looking sharp after spells in the gym and the squash courts, beat four men in a row with a feline grace worthy of the Fen Tiger, while Lukas Snetler, with a trademark reverse hit, Mark Pears, Chris Graveling and Garrett all drew good saves from the Deeping keeper, who was over­worked but not overwhelmed as South drove forward with intent. There was an elegant paddle-sweep from Graham McCulloch which would have made a very pretty goal had it not just eluded the left-hand post but, for all the incisive approach work, the finishing left something to be desired. The four first-half short corners were all smoothly injected and crisply stopped but there was little reward as either the keeper or an adroit defensive stick got in the way. Baker's attempted flick on the fourth was more pussy than tiger and South's luck was summed up when Keith Hewitt, perhaps over-excited after the long break, agonisingly scuffed the ball onto the keeper's left toe when handed a platinum opportunity by the unselfish Pears. [Your correspondent writes with the benefit of hindsight that Al Sinclair opened the scoring for South at some point during the first half, an event mysteriously unseen and unrecorded in the notebook but corroborated by several people who obviously had a better view!]

Hewitt nevertheless persisted in his familiar all-action style and, though not finding the goal on this occasion, he had no difficulty in locating the knees of sundry Deeping defenders, which appeared unhappily magnetised to the ball. South opened up a cushion on 48 minutes when, from a short-corner slip by Hewitt that for once did not involve any intervening Deeping anatomy, Sin­clair flicked home into the bottom of the goal via the keeper's stick. The balance of play remained firmly with South but, on 53 minutes, a Deeping breakaway following a neat aerial left the home defence a man short and an unmarked central striker slotted home with aplomb to wobble the collies.

As time wore on, however, Deeping's straight eleven tired and South's longer bench enabled them to keep throwing fresh players on. The visitors became increasingly stretched at the back, especially when Russell Johnson found space on the right to cut in ominously, and in the last 15 minutes, South accelerated out of sight with a strike from Chris Graveling (in perfect po­siti­on to flick home unopposed after a recycled short corner) preceding cool finishes from Snetler and Garrett which exploited all the angles that had started to become available. James Cobbe was unlucky not to make it six with a sweet first-timer, while a Hewitt-Snetler one-two also nearly did the trick.

The defensive corps were not unduly troubled, with Leo Tomita's slap-hits largely unreadable and Jim Thorpe even jumping into the attack with a booming drive at one point, but slack marking near the end left a lone gun bearing down on goal. Parker, though, raced out unhesitatingly and picked his moment to despatch ball and man in customary fashion to set the seal on an ultimately convinc­ing victory.

Despite this pleasing start to the post-Christmas campaign, South are well aware that their next three games - against Wisbech (away), the University (home) and Rutland (away) - will be the real litmus test of their ambitions for the season and it is to be hoped that all parts of their game are in good working order for the task that lies ahead.