Cambridge South 3rds arrived at St Neots in good spirits despite the encroaching darkness due to a late afternoon push-back, little knowing that the approaching game would be remembered more for its injuries than for its hockey.

It didn't take long for South to start hurting themselves. Practising short corners with both attack and defence during the warm-up, defender Sam Lansdell rushed out towards receiver James Bridge, then came around the wrong side and found his head connecting with the end of Bridge's swinging stick. Blood began to flow from a cut on Lansdell's right eyebrow, and it was apparent that hospital treatment was required. Following some negotiation, captain David Bridge took Lansdell to hospital, where he had six stitches and is now recovering well. This left South a man down: umpire Andy Lewis stepped into the team, and St Neots kindly provided a second umpire. James Bridge took over the captaincy.

The match began after a short delay with South starting with only ten men, as Lewis was still getting changed, and joining soon after. The sides were fairly even to begin with: St Neots played a good passing game, with South focussing more on dribbling the ball up the pitch and trying long passes towards the forward pair of Wilco Dijkstra and David Scott. Both sides had a number of attacks: one South attack resulted in a long corner, which unfortunately hit a St Neots defender in the leg for the second injury of the match, although the player was able to continue after a short rest. Similarly, a St Neots passing attack up the centre involved a strong tackle by midfielder Chris Clegg, during which the attacker's stick whacked solidly into Clegg's knee for yet another injury, although he could also continue playing after a pause.

The South defence of Steve Morrell, Sam Carr, Ian Evans (taking injured Lansdell's place) and led by a strong Ky Ho, stood firm against St Neots attacks until a freak goal after about twenty minutes. A long fast ball into the centre of South's D was miscontrolled by a St Neots attacker, to fly up off his stick into the top right corner of the South goal. The South pain was doubled less than a minute later: St Neots regained possession after the restart and immediately passed the ball up to their attackers, who neatly slotted the ball away for a second goal. South were understandably dismayed by this sudden two goal deficit, but managed to hang on for the rest of the first half.

Following the restart, Dijkstra and Lewis changed positions, with Dijkstra dropping back to left wing and Lewis moving up as a striker. St Neots restarted strongly, putting pressure on the South defence and gaining a series of short corners. One of these resulted in a shot on goal, which defender Ho got a stick to, but unfortunately only enough to deflect the ball past keeper Tom James and into the goal, for St Neots' third of the afternoon.

With fifteen minutes of the match left, Matt Murray arrived to bolster the team following a phone call from departed David Bridge, and came on to replace Lewis (who had already played one match today). The arrival of Murray served as a catalyst for South to lift their game, showing no signs of tiring (which has been a problem towards the end of matches earlier in the season).

The South midfield of Tim Gass, James Bridge, Chris Clegg, and Wilco Dijkstra produced some good link-up play and attacked the St Neots defence with renewed vigour, which culminated in a short corner. Dijkstra pushed out to Bridge, who, in a pre-arranged routine, passed the ball left to Murray, who unleashed a shot that found the St Neots goal. South continued to press hard for the last five minutes, but in the end the pressure had simply come too late.