Low-Bow Exploitation

Mike Karran

It was a grey day as Cambridge South arrived in Peterborough to cement their place at the top of the table, with a cruel wind whipping up sand off the concrete beach/pitch. The twelve man squad was a solid team with some changes enforced by injury, most notably Tom Rosselli who received Lemon of the Match for being unable to distinguish between a step and the floor and then twisting his knee. He also claimed this was pre-Jägerbombs but the jury is still out on that.

Jason in goal and a five man defence of Dave Aston, moving back into the absent Tom’s position, along with Colin “I’ve lost my wingman” Troll (who was somewhat nervous about the change in defence, unlike everyone else), Bhav and Mike at right and left with Xabi in the centre. In front of them Craig, Mark and Jamie rotating in the middle and a forward line with Chris, “98 league goals” Graham and last minute Tom replacement, Ollie.

Omens were good with fellow top-of-the-table side Leicester City winning away and a pre-game team talk from the Captain which was truly inspiring – the words “truly resonated with me” were mentioned. Despite this, the first half was a nervy affair with Peterborough having a good amount of the ball and a lack of sharpness about South. The first goal came late on for South but it took a second just before half time to ease the tension.

The match was won in the first ten minutes of the second half with another pair of South goals which were classic examples of flowing counter-attacking hockey: balls won in the midfield from good pressure and moved quickly up the field, finished off with unselfish forward play.

The match continued with South dominating possession and territory, adding three more goals to the second half tally including a brace from Spikey Mike, the left back who took home the coveted Man of the Match award and tried to claim he “exploited the low-bow to blast it in from the top of the D”. This was quickly refuted by Graham – now ninety-nine league goals – who allowed only “flicked it round a crowd of players” and was clearly just jealous. Other goals came from Chris Pearson, getting a jug-tastic hat-trick from two tap-ins and a beautifully struck short corner into the bottom right, and Mark Williams with a reverse from the front post.

Special mention to Craig who put in a stellar shift in midfield and had the energy to run from South’s twenty-two yard line to the opposition’s D and lay it off for a tap-in at the back post, and to Jason in goal who didn’t have a huge amount to do and yet still managed to pull off a quality save in the last minutes of the game to keep the clean sheet.

Seven goals, a clean sheet and five points clear at the top; dare we mention the P word yet...

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Mike Karran
Player of the Match

Whilst the left-half position has always been the team's weakest, Mike gave us a textbook example of defence and offence this week. Two great goals to top it off!

Tom Rosselli
Lemon of the Match

Thirsty Thursday left Rossellini with a twisted knee and battered pride as he takes home the Lemon award.