South 3rds' game at Bourne Deeping (aka The Dragons) 4ths directly followed on from the match between South M1s and the Dragons M2s. That had finished 5-4 to our guys, prompting 1sts keeper ‘The Everlasting’ Parker to comment, “If your game is half as dramatic as that, you guys are in for a fun afternoon!” Yep.

First thing that the 3rds had to get used to was our colour scheme, which was a new one on all. The new shirts for this season, which I’m calling Roman Imperial Purple as it seems suitably grand, had been ditched on account of the shade being rather darker than that in reality and so too close to Bourne Deeping's black for comfort. However the 1sts had pulled rank on the solitary bag of men’s yellow away shirts.

We therefore ended up back in fondly remembered green, which was never meant to be worn again! And it certainly hadn’t been paired with navy shorts and yellow socks before (by us). As Joe, always one to cut to the chase, put it “So we are wearing last year’s home shirts, this year’s home shorts and last year’s away socks, right?” Erm, yeah. Or at least most of us were. One player, who shall remain nameless, had turned up for the game with the only alternatives to purple-navy-purple being a black shirt and black socks! Not great when we are travelling to play a side whose strip is black-black-black!

Could we adapt to our familiar-yet-unfamilar appearance? Or would we struggle with being green once again, like certain others have done? The initial signs were good as we went ahead inside three minutes from our first short, Dave cracking home into the near corner. However the lead only lasted seconds as nearly straight from the restart Dave received a pass and was quickly closed down and mugged by two Dragons [sounds unpleasant]. He was last man, so they were straight through, two-on-zip. New goalie Matt SG saved the initial shot, but was powerless as the rebound was worked around him to the second man, who lifted high into the goal past a scrambling defender.

We weathered the rest of the opening half, but not without a few scares as the hosts appeared to have the freedom of central midfield. This was despite the sterling efforts in that zone of Daniel, who was making his debut and looks like he will be an asset to the club. We did have some play of our own, though, and the half ended with us on the attack, the ball breaking free in the circle to Danny* who was just winding up for what would undoubtedly have been a spectacular shot into the roof of the net when the half-time whistle went!

The second period saw a formation change to what the skipper termed plan B. The feeling at full-time was this worked better. I’m not totally sure. I don’t think unlikely goalline clearances can be relied on week after week. There were at least three of these after the break, first from Dave as he somehow made a reverse stick block from a shot on the rebound that was surely going into a gaping net, then from Douglas, who dived full length to knock a loose ball away from a yard in front of the far post, and finally from James who somehow appeared from his position on left wing to intercept and clear a ball that was heading across the face of goal, inches out. One might say we rode our luck.

This sort of last gasp defending couldn’t keep the Dragons out every time, and fairly early in the half a similar second phase opportunity to the others was converted; we lost the ball on halfway, got overloaded down our left, Matt came out to save the initial incursion but the ball was calmly worked around him and finished (just - someone nearly stopped this one, too!). Our response was mostly from shorts, which again seemed to be working sweetly. We equalised in this manner around fifteen minutes into the second half as the ball came out to Rob, who fed Dave. Dave stepped past a man and moved the ball onto his reverse, sweeping a Barton-esque shot home, possibly with the aid of a killer bobble.

As time wore down, it looked like we had extracted a fortuitous point from the game. Then Paul played a weighted ball towards the right corner for Joe to chase on to. There are ways to prepare the evening before an athletic endeavour, and I’m sure that Joe’s method comes highly recommended by the British Olympic Association:-

It would explain why he still had the energy, after 69m 50s of work in unseasonably hot conditions, to sprint fifty yards after Paul’s teasing pass (think of all those lovely calories). He got there just as a defender was trying to sheppard it out, and would have had a play on the ball if the Dragons player hadn’t positioned his body to prevent it. Which is OK in football but is obstruction in hockey, and deliberate obstruction at that. A short corner was awarded, the other ump blowing for full-time fractions of a second later.

So we had an unexpected golden opportunity to steal all the points. Up everybody came, the inject came out, was moved left to Rob, who passed (shot!) across the face of goal. It went beyond the keeper, but not past centre-back Douglas, who would never have been that far upfield in other circumstances. He controlled and pushed home in one fluid motion. Somehow, we don’t really know how, we had won!

Finally a word on the sportsmanship of the Bourne Deeping side, which was fine during the game, but really noticeably good after it. The result was patently unfortunate for them, and yet they were very gracious in the changing rooms and pub afterwards. Many a side would have been in a serious sulk after something as gut-wrenching as this must have been.

* Danny is not to be confused with Daniel aka Dan. Which I don’t think we always managed, maybe not helped by them playing together in midfield. Can one of you change your name to Roderick, please?