South 2nds first trip to the fens of the new season proved a point-less, but not entirely fruitless exercise.

Deeping have been a good side in this division for the past couple of seasons, narrowly missing out on promotion both times, and from the signs on Saturday, they will probably go close again. Whilst South couldn't claim to be their equals from this match, Deeping deserving the victory, our performance was good and the match at least felt closer than recent games between the two sides.

South started the match quite slowly, trying to bed in the three late call-ups from the 3rd team, Wilco Dijkstra, Neil Sneade and James Raikes, who were rotating in support of Suk Pannu as part of South's 3 man midfield. Also finding his feet in the first fifteen minutes was left winger Finn Johnson, who initially looked rusty playing his first game for a month, but got back into the swing as the match progressed.

Having survived a difficult opening quarter-hour without damage, South were annoyed to then fall behind to a goal tinged with controversy. A quick Deeping attack had seen South's defence all at sea, and a forward free in our D. His shot hit a South foot, and ballooned up in the air, but was heading wide. However, the Deeping centre-forward reacted to the ball to knock it home. South protested that he had knocked it home in a dangerous fashion, by swinging at an aerial ball. The Umpires consulted and decided the decisive touch had been a legal deflection, not a swing, so the goal stood. South quickly put their disappointment at this behind them, and were soon back level.

A Deeping short-corner routine was broken down by Jan Brynjolffssen, who fed the ball on to Tom Gowing. Tom drove it to the Deeping twenty-five, where he won a free hit for a foot. With Deeping's midfield struggling to get back up the pitch to help their defence, Suk Pannu took an early, hard free hit. Tom and a defender got half a touch on it and Jan, having stayed up with the initial attack, and now hanging around unmarked near the right post, swept the loose ball home.

South nearly conceded straight from the restart, with low concentration allowing Deeping to cut through on keeper Lino Di Lorenzo, who was out fast enough to narrow the angle and force the forward to shoot wide. This was the final serious action of the first half.

South's half-time team talk concentrated on playing with a bit more drive, coming to receive balls, not waiting for them to reach you, and committing hard to our tackles. Unfortunately, Deeping's teamtalk appeared to centre on similar "Make this ours" themes, and they started the second-half in dominant fashion. South spent ten minutes barely able to clear the halfway line and eventually the pressure told, when Deeping's dangerous centre-forward was too sharp for his markers, reacting quickest to a sideline hit to turn home.

South were still in the game at this point, but it didn't last for long. A Deeping short corner, won after a goalmouth scramble, was flicked low and hard, beating Lino for pace: 3-1.

South now had to press forward to get anything form the game, although this left them exposed in defence. With too many players looking to dribble it all the way through themselves, the ball was being lost in tackles and Deeping were showing South how it should be done, moving the ball on fast, hard, and, mostly importantly, instantly on receiving it. One such piece of counter-attacking produced three players through with just Mark Jackson and Lino to beat, which they did by inter-passing the ball to walk it home.

The positives from South's point of view from this game were the energy and commitment all the players showed throughout, with some nice skill thrown in as well at times. This was exemplified when South got the final goal of the game. Samin Ishtiaq reacted sharply to a poor Deeping sixteen yard hit, stole the ball off his opponent and won a free-hit for obstruction. Suk once again drove it in cleanly for Tom Gowing, who had found a spot unmarked just wide of the right post, to deflect home. Post match talk concentrated on using the ball better in attacking situations and that this could mean (often does mean) turning around and playing the ball backwards when confronted by a defender. Not dribbling it into him, and losing it…