Men's 2nds lose to City of Peterborough 6
Cambridge South 2nds, sponsored by PwC, came out on the wrong end of a hard-fought game in the cold of Peterborough on Saturday.
A distinct lack of defenders had seen South go into the game with centre-forward Rob Barton filling in as sweeper, a role in which he would offer a solid performance. However, with this new look defence, South found themselves struggling to clear their lines in the opening minutes. Shorts were given away, and from the third of these, a rebound from a save from ‘keeper Lino Di Lorenzo was lifted high into the net.
From the re-start, South began to play, a neat move finding Samin Ishtiaq in space, Samin’s flick drawing the first of a string of saves from the Peterborough ‘keeper. South kept probing, and had another good chance when Simon Ta was millimetres short of a tap in on the far post, after a driven cross from Samin, but the hosts were also looking dangerous on the break as their quick young forwards interchanged neatly. Mid-way through the half it was 2-0, again from a short; the initial move seemed to break down, but with the defence converging on the ball, one simple pass found a player in acres of space and he cracked hard into the bottom corner.
South again came very close to pulling a goal back when James Cobbe played an aerial down the left touchline to strike partner Simon, whose touch in plucking the ball out of the air was classy, leaving him to able to outpace the last defender. Simon tried to round the ‘keeper, who got a slight touch on the ball, forcing him wide and having to stop to regain composure for his shot. This gave time for a defender to scramble back to his goalline and block the effort.
Peterborough scored a deflating third from a quick break soon afterwards, a late runner appearing in the circle to nip in front of some static defenders to touch the ball home. However, South earned themselves a lifeline in the dying minutes of the half from a short corner. Kevin Rowland attempted to slip the ball left to Paul South, Paul miss-controlled neatly into the path of Simon, who swept smartly into the far corner.
The second period was an end-to-end affair, as South looked for the goal that would get them back into the game. Whilst Peterborough remained a danger throughout, the home goalkeeper was the busier of the two. The closest South came was the result of counter-attack that saw Simon burst through a high last line of defence, near halfway. He advanced into the circle, went around the ‘keeper but then, as the angle rapidly narrowed, was unable to achieve a solid enough connection on the reverse stick, the ball drifting wide.
Time ran out with South still probing for a way back into the match. Skipper Kev was looking for positives from the performance, saying "Despite the score line there was plenty to get from the game, good team passing and possession was high which meant we created plenty of threatening play in their half. We’ve got to put some focus on converting the build up into goals to get the points we need".
Kevin Rowland
For various offences, mostly over-enthusiastic running around to little discernable effect (c.f. the England football team last Wednesday)
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