Bourne deserved to win a scrappy game, as they played well as a team and scored goals when they needed to. Cambridge South again conceded early on, allowing a Bourne attacker free rein through the defence, although the final touch was a home player deflecting the ball away from keeper Jon Price.

South could have got back into it with a penalty won by Stu Creed who was felled when in on goal, but his effort was saved by the irritatingly excellent Bourne keeper. The home team had opportunities from short corners - pleasingly all resulting in shots on goal, and Samin Ishtiaq narrowly failed to score after a great shimmy along the line.

The second half began as the first with a Bourne goal, again outfoxing the defence. South didnt give up and could have had a goal as a trademark Greaves-Lewis short corner routine saw the keeper block John Greaves's near post deflection.

Bourne still had most of the possession, too often given to them as South failed to pass well or find players in space. Andy Bleach again was a man mountain in defence with frequent last ditch tackles, but attacking moves broke down too easily, with too many of us not copying Suk Pannu's cool ball winning and easy early passing approach.

South weren't helped by two injuries, to Leo Tomita (hamstring) and Tim Clapp (foot), so the defence ended up rather makeshift, although generally solid (thank you Kevin Rowland and Stu Creed). Indeed the team played their best after Bourne had got a third goal as a shot from a short corner rebounded to a waiting attacker to push it into the net.

The final fifteen minutes were much better with South using the width of the pitch, and passing early to unmarked teammates, but the damage had been done.

The skills are there, but the 2nds were let down by holding on to the ball too long, poor passes, and insufficient team play… against an admittedly strong Bourne team playing well as a… team.