South lost out narrowly against a fit student side (which included sometime South players, Nick Wong and Ian Evans) in an open, attacking game, which strangely was devoid of many true goal-scoring chances. This was due to the excellent work by both defences, who made numerous clean tackles to end dangerous situations before the shot could come in.

The only goal of the game was scored by Jesus, midway through the first half. Following the breakdown of a South attack, the ball was worked up to a forward on the halfway line. From there, he dribbled neatly past two South tackles before dispatching a solid cross-shot into the far corner that South keeper, Cassie Ragnauth, had little chance with. Hard on Cassie, who had been left utterly exposed for the shot, as she looked in total control with the other efforts that Jesus sent her way.

South looked to up the tempo for the remainder of the first half and came close to fashioning an equaliser, with Raph Mis and Stu Creed bursting from midfield to add support to forwards Andy Lewis and Tash Cox. However, a Jesus stick was always on hand to put pressure on, and few moves resulted in clean chances to test Jesus’ ‘keeper.

Throughout the game, South’s best moves were coming from combinations involving centre-back Mark Freer, wide midfielders Gemma Thomas and Nicki Sutton, feeding the ball on up to hard-work line-leader Tash Cox. Despite winning a number of short corners, South could never quite find the killer touch, and despite a nervous last few minutes for the students, they held on to claim their victory.

Man of the match really has to go to the Jesus sweeper, Paddy, the bane of the South forward line, whose personal count of interceptions and tackles must have been staggering. For South, star performers were Jodee Davis and Rupert Webb, impressively solid at full-backs.