Fielding a depleted side of only ten players due to calls up from the 1sts, the 2nds put up a creditable performance in their first friendly of the season, beaten only by a late, late winner.

After a bright start, the home side deservedly opened the scoring when a misplaced pass in the South defence allowed the Stevenage centre forward to break into the circle. Defenders scrambling back to cover only succeeded in obscuring keeper Jim Sutcliffe's view of an accurate shot at the corner of his goal, giving him no chance.

South were back on level terms within a couple of minutes when centre forward Will Marston slipped a short corner to Stephen Fleck, who made room for himself and struck a clean drive, which Hannes Roux touched home by the left post.

Using that frenetic start as a springboard, South put together some dangerous attacks. However with the team now pushing forward, quick counter-attacks saw them occasionally outnumbered in their defensive zone. When one of these produced a short corner, Stevenage retook the lead with another well placed shot into the corner.

Ignoring the setback, South dominated the rest of the half. The central midfield pairing of Fleck and Roux were distributing the ball well to the club debutant wide players Tom Harrison and James Pope. One such flowing move, which had started all the way back in South's defensive zone with right back Mark Jackson, produced the second equaliser. The other club debutant of the day, Shantanu Golaz, picked up the rebound from Marston's saved shot and showed excellent composure in neatly flicking the ball home.

South moved ahead for the first time soon afterwards, when another attack down the right wing saw Golaz sweep a spinning shot goalwards from near the penalty spot. On bouncing the ball leg-broke in a manner Shane Warne would have been proud of, giving the Stevenage keeper little chance. South nearly made it four to complete an excellent first half, when Marston broke into the box and lifted a shot over the prone goalkeeper, only for a Stevenage defender to make an excellent knee-high goal-line clearance.

At the start of the second half the game settled into an end-to-end pattern with both teams defenders and keepers being kept busy, Sutcliffe in particularly making one excellent stretching save with his right leg as another shot was arrowing at the corner of his net.

As the match wore on the effects of being a man light began to tell on South and despite strong performances by defenders Paul McIlwaine and Jan Brynjolffssen, a potential victory slipped to defeat in the last ten minutes. First a good move down the Stevenage right saw a man worked free in the box, and he slipped the ball under Sutcliffe to equalise. Then with less than two minutes to go, a short corner was flicked onto the post and rebounded to a waiting forward, who made no mistake from close range.

South did have a final chance to get the draw their performance warranted, with a short corner given seconds before the final whistle. With the match over as soon as the corner was completed, Fleck's flicked shot just cleared the crossbar.

Good performances from everyone, especially the new players to the club. Well played, and do keep coming back for more. However the man-of-the-match was, um, apparently Jan Brynjolffssen (or me). According to Mr Fleck and Mr Sutcliffe, at least. Must have known I was going to write this, or something…