After some last minute tribulations due to a couple of withdrawals from illness, Cambridge South 2nds, sponsored by PwC, were glad to have eleven players for this fixture. The side was a motley collection, with six 2nd team regulars and a couple of 3rd-teamers, supplemented by recent recruit Gareth Hebbron (who had stepped down from the 1sts at the last minute), old friend of South, Steve Starkie, making the short trip up from Walthamstow to keep goal and an eleventh in James Raikes's work colleague, Steve Smith, who is looking for a club for next season. But in the warm-up it seemed to work surprisingly well, as each player stated their preferred position and we ended up with one man to each slot.

Unfortunately, once the game started, it didn't work so well. The defence was struggling with the pace of the Harlow centre forward, which saw him break away clean through for a couple of goals. Then, following a personnel re-organisation which hadn't had time to bed in, another was added, rather unluckily as the original shot had been going wide until it struck a defensive foot.

The game certainly wasn’t all one way traffic with John Greaves and James Raikes working the home keeper and South's attacking looked nice and co-ordinated. Just a shame the defence was a shambles.

The second half was played in a similar vein. Chances were created at both ends, but South's either went wide, as when Greavesie just missed contact to turn in an Jan Brynjolffssen drive from a short corner, or were well saved, as when the Harlow keeper made a stunning block to keep out John Horsley's top corner-bound sweep shot at the end of a flowing move. At the other end, Harlow put the ball in the net from their chances to take their tally up to five.

South can have no complaints about the defeat; five goals for Harlow was a fair reflection on their threat, but they can count themselves highly unlucky not to have scored two or three of their own. The run of play and the final score had a distinct dissonance. This was a worthwhile match, and one worth repeating next season, given the ease of travel the motorway affords between the two towns. Both clubs spend three times as long on the road getting to some of their away league matches!