The sun shone and South 2nds turned on the heat to run out 5-3 winners against Bishop's Stortford 4th XI.

From the start it was clear that Cambridge South 2nd XI had the beating of the opposition and it only took a few minutes to convert early possession into a goal. Skilful work from Al Sinclair led to a short corner, the initial shot was blocked by the home keeper but our very own fox in the box, Rob Barton, was on hand to tuck in the rebound.

At this point it looked like the defence were going to have very little work as all the play was in the Stortford half but the game was turned on its head in the space of 10 minutes as the home team converted 2 shorts in quick succession. The first was a clean strike to find the left hand corner with no-one on the post; this was closely followed by another good strike kept out by a miraculous stop by Lino diving to his right but the ball fell loose and a Stortford striker was on hand to fire it into the top corner via John Benedikz's despairing stick.

Finally South's defence found some voice and, with direction from the excellent Nick Bristowe, marking was tightened up and normal service resumed. Matt Kern was tireless in providing probing runs up the left and sprinting back to cover whilst all the opposition's attacks up their left foundered on the rock of JB’s defence.

This solid base allowed the midfield to flourish again and the equaliser for South was a peach. A flowing move up the right involving pretty much every member of the midfield was played in across the D by Al Sinclair and MoM (yet again!) Mark Pears swept the ball past the stranded keeper.

Two-all at half time and reinforcements (and oranges) arrived in the shape of LoM Neil Sneade (fresh from Addenbrokes after the arrival of baby Alicia the day before – congratulations Neil!).

Thus refreshed, South then put the opposition to the sword in the 2nd half and the final scoreline did not reflect the true balance of the match. A third goal came shortly after the restart; Jack Chalk made a strong run to the byeline and teed up Mark Pears to sweep home from an acute angle. 3-2 then became 4-2 when good work by Tim Clapp and Dave Aston created hysteria in the Stortford defence. In a melee of swings and misses Rob Barton was again in the right place to knock the ball into the right hand corner.

Into the last quarter of the match and South's superior fitness and skills were showing – Stortford could not find an answer. Time and again the South midfield asked questions of the home defence and, with 10 minutes left on the clock, a 5th goal was added. Rapid interplay between Dave, Tim and George Wych (in unknown territory over the halfway line) created an opening for Rob to run onto. Ghosting past the first defender……only the keeper to beat, and in a flash Rob was round him with the goal at his mercy. Time stood still as the whole team waited for the sound of ball against backboard but still Rob didn't pull the trigger. Finally the shot was taken, only to strike the foot of the covering defender – penalty flick! With 2 strikers on a hat trick captain Kev Rowland selflessly decided to take the flick himself (thereby saving anyone the expense of a jug) and a few seconds later the ball was bulging the top corner of the Stortford net – 5-2 to South.

The final few minutes were played out in festival style and, even though Stortford got a late consolation goal it was not enough to put any pressure on the away side.

After the game, captain Kev Rowland said "This was our last friendly game and we needed to show we could win games through playing as unit, possession being the key. The team created some excellent passing and plays which led to goals, the scoreline could have been larger but importantly it was the way we played that created the opportunities. We have to take this into the first league game next week."