On a pleasant Indian summer day, which contrasted sharply with last Saturday’s Siberian winter, South made it three wins out of three with a clinical 9-0 dissection of a Bourne side who were on the back foot from the very first whistle.

Benefiting from an extended warm-up owing to the late arrival of the umpires, South immediately took the initiative and, after a fluid series of moves involving virtually the whole team, skipper Chris Baker set Eliot Read up for a reverse lift-in to make it 1-0 with just a minute on the clock, all before Bourne had managed to make any sort of meaningful intervention. The advantage was doubled three minutes later when Baker, after a fine run by the hard-working Lukas Snetler, found the ball sitting up invitingly near the penalty spot and pushed it into the unguarded net without further ado.

August Strindberg

Bourne, led by a wily and experienced campaigner who bears an astonishing resemblance to the great Swedish dramatist August Strindberg [Ed. - one of the more obscure references to grace a South match report!] (and who has probably played more East League games than Strindberg had hot smorgasbords), tried hard to find some shape to counter South's heads-up passing game but it was not until the twelfth minute that they made their first foray of note anywhere near the danger area and, even then, they were quickly shepherded away by a persuasive Chris Graveling. Bourne’s supply lines were repeatedly cut off by astute interceptions from, among others, Matt Readman and Richard Morgan, and it was a struggle for the home side to replicate South's organised triangles and imaginative running off the ball.

The hosts' keeper, already beginning to look overworked, saw James Cobbe ping a shot back off the post after 23 minutes but could only look on helplessly a minute later as Rob Garrett's inch-perfect pass from Baker's short-corner slip found Graveling unmarked at the far post and in no mood to show the backboard any mercy. The final goal of the half arrived when Garrett, a constant menace to the beleaguered Bourne defence, crossed from the right to leave Russell Johnson making the most of a rebound that broke free close in. By the thirtieth minute, South keeper Steve Parker – so busy throughout against Spalding last week – had made the last of his three contributions to this game, diving to bring off an excellent close-range save after Bourne had taken advantage of temporary discomfiture in the visitors' D. The action quickly reverted to the other end, with the Bourne goal perpetually under siege and their defence looking constrained and short of space.

The pressure was soon on again in the second half, as an aggressive Jim Thorpe drove upfield with a telling glint in his eye, but it was Baker who got himself on the scoresheet again after thirty-seven minutes with a firm drive from South's fifth short. Snetler, given good service from a midfield and back division in which Rupert Webb again gave a polished performance, posed a continuous threat with his terrier-like runs and was unlucky to be denied when the home keeper stretched out a telescopic left leg to stop a goal-bound strike on 44 minutes. However, persistence brought its reward five minutes later when, following calm tackling and distribution from Graveling, Snetler buzzed waspishly around the left defence and remained in the epicentre after a prolonged melee in front of the keeper to pop in South's sixth of the afternoon.

A further three short corners proved fruitless as the newly-laid pitch seemed to take the pace off the injection but number ten resulted in a crisp carbon-copy of number three as Graveling finished off a four-man move of horological precision. Despite sterling work from the Bourne keeper, who put up a gutsy show against heavy odds, South still had time to rattle in two more markers on 66 and 67 minutes, the first through Johnson, who rammed in a tumbling rebound with scant regard for his own safety, and the second from a jubilant Mike Thorogood, who cleverly batted in a ball going across the face of the goal. Thorpe, faced with a double chance of glory to bring up double figures, drew a double save at the death, leaving South comprehensive winners over a nevertheless gracious and sporting Bourne side who ultimately failed to manufacture any hint of a conspiracy.

Skipper Baker, delighted that the precipitous rate of attrition affecting the practice balls had at last miraculously been halted, praised the South effort, citing extra fitness as a major factor in the team’s convincing start. Early, incisive movement of the ball, good marking and composure in defence were the hallmarks against Bourne and, though a number of clear attacking chances went unconverted, it was good to see South crowding the D hungry for the rebound and not afraid to get their noses dirty in a pile-up. Nine points from three games is the perfect opening but South's next three fixtures, against March, Ely and Peterborough, will be the litmus test of their ambitions and expectations for the rest of the season.