So, the clocks have gone forward, the weather has got that bit warmer meaning that fingers are not numb on sticks, and therefore the league season has finished. OK… Well, South were not standing for that, so they have picked up a few friendly matches to keep them going through April, beginning with a match against near neighbours, Royston. Due to the vagaries of league boundaries, despite the two clubs only being based about ten miles apart, these sides never usually get to meet.

The game started in sunshine and 15°C temperatures. Both clubs had reasonably sized squads along to rotate players, South with fifteen men and Royston with fourteen. Some participants in the match were quiet. Your correspondent however was not one of them, for the wrong reasons. After spending the first ten minutes on the sideline telling everyone how it should be done, I get the ball. Big swing. Complete air-shot. Oh well, try again. Big swing. Repeat air shot. *!?@*!*. It's contagious, as Stevie L then also tries, and misses, at which point Jim S umpiring has had enough and gives Royston a free-hit and certain people a chance to hide their shame. Ahem…

Anyway, apart from that and one good push around the post by Jon Price from a shortie flicked towards his top corner, South were the stronger side in the opening period. The two Gareths, Peat at right wing and Hebbron at left-back, were causing Royston troubles, and South could easily have had two or three goals with Greavesie and Alex P (back from Durham Uni for Easter) unmarked in the visitors circle on numerous occasions. However, only once was the ball forced home, and forced is the right description, as Mike T and Greavesie both had a couple of goes, before Mike eventually knocked it in from a foot.

South doubled their lead in the first few minutes of the second half, and if the opener was a reward for persistence (aka scrappy), this was classical and clinical. The same two players were involved, Greavesie injecting a short, Mike thumping a drive towards the near post, which the skipper had moved towards to deflect in. The scream some thought they heard was Andy Lewis on the touchline aware that this year's wager is going more and more in Greaves's direction.

After this, Royston came back into the match by pushing a midfielder up into the hole behind the strikers. They quickly responded to going two behind, a player dribbling laterally across the top of the D, beating players, and then getting in a solid shot to the far corner, which Pricey's defence kindly left him unsighted for.

With the energy draining from South, it was Royston who looked most likely to score again. One communication breakdown between Pricey and Bleachy saw an attacker sweeping at an unguarded net but he hit the post. Another scare came when a long ball was left to roll harmlessly dead, only for it to also hit the post, stay in play and have to be dealt with. Finally, pressure told with a length of the pitch counter, which saw the South defence outnumbered, Pricey drawn and passed around, and South not getting lucky twice as the Royston player this time found the open target.

The final ten minutes were a bit frantic, with both sides looking for a winner. However, no chances were really created at either end, and it was down to the Earl of Derby for the last time this season for a drink and some sausages and chips. And also the suggestion that we should do this again a couple of times over summer, preferably on a midweek evening, when it's not too hot. The weather is never just right, is it?