Faced with a Spalding side determined to finish top of the league and having to field a somewhat diluted defensive corps themselves, South could perhaps be forgiven for wondering whether a re­versal of the pre-Christmas result between the sides - a 2-1 victory to Spalding - was really on the cards and, indeed, after the first 20 minutes, the home side seemed to hold all the aces as they had already cruised into a 4-0 lead thanks to some ruthless finishing. Exploiting space at South's rear and running hard, they created several gilt-edged opportunities and unhesitatingly put them away with a compelling blend of power and accuracy. Though South struggled to match the pace, the evergreen Rob Barton, on his seasonal debut for the team, used all his experience to test the hosts' keeper on several occasions during this period and was unlucky to come away empty-handed.

After enduring the early onslaught, South recovered some of their equilibrium, with Rob Garrett as ever working like a Trojan in midfield and elsewhere and Lukas Snetler and Chris Heron making as much use of Ron Oren's feeds from left defence as they were allowed. Keith Hewitt helped to man the pumps, James Cobbe made a splendid interception on a fast two-on-one break and Steve Parker, given little chance earlier in the half, made a good diving stick tackle as Spalding bore in on the li-ne as the interval approached.

A much more coherent start to the second stanza saw Spalding less dominant, if not entirely on the back foot, and, after Leo Tomita had cleared one of the home side's long biffs in, Heron was bruta­lly upended to earn South a short corner. Hewitt's strike was not cleared and Chris Baker's instant follow-up was not buried but Garrett formed a one-man third wave and lifted it home in textbook fashion. The defence and midfield had more concerted possession for a while and Hewitt, Snetler and Garrett, supported by Baker's silky skills^TM, all posed a threat going forward. After Parker had made a great short-range block on the doorstep, Spalding were lured into a couple of unwise passes, one of them well intercepted by Heron, and Hewitt took up the baton, forcing another short corner as the keeper cleared high. From this, the popular Aussie, playing his final game for South, sent a little ripper (you'll have to imagine the accent) right into the bottom corner to give the hosts a wake-up call ... which sadly they heeded, as less than a couple of minutes later they forged down the pitch and unleashed a snapshot into the opposite corner to make it 5-2.

South remustered and, after Tomita had wisely decided that heading the ball was not a trick worth repeating, Hewitt sent a fair dinkum pass (see, it's rubbing off) across the face of a largely untenant­ed D, where Russell Johnson, having got his skates on, was just beaten to the action by the advanc­ing keeper. There was no let-up from Spalding in the physical stakes and the earth shook as Hewitt and the home side's big playmaker, neither candi­dates for the shrinking violet award, made sudden and close acquaintance with the turf. South stuck to their guns, with Garrett predatory in the chase and tackle, Cobbe feeding Johnson up the right and Oren sending an incisive diagonal ball through to Snetler, and a fifth short was gained. Hewitt's bonzer shot rebounded off the keeper and South kept the ball in action through Oren and Baker but Spald­ing ended the stronger, forcing two fine stops from Parker before creaming in an unstoppable short corner to restore the four-goal margin. There was still time for a shot past Spalding's left post, a fine interplay between Barton and the other forwards and a bit more argy-bargy to test the umpires but, in the end, South could have no complaints as the hosts' superior firepower won the day and, with it, the league title and a promo­tion which had in truth seemed likely from the early stages of the sea­son.