The Ivo Outdoor Centre witnessed a see-saw contest between two well-matched teams with momentum gradually building towards a frantic climax.

Despite a late withdrawal by Ron Oren (sore thumb and blisters; it's not clear if the two were linked), necessitating a call up for Johnny Benedikz, and with Neil Sneade also less than 100% (cold), South were confident they could still take a result from the game. However, when the match did get under way South initially struggled against an insurgent St Ives side and were finding it hard to settle into their rhythm, thanks in no small part to smart, pressing play from St Ives.

In what was generally a well-tempered game, it was a surprise when a green card for repeated stick tackling was produced for South within the first five minutes. Worse was to follow when, South having already been warned for a substitute entering the pitch before the departing player had left, a repeat infringement saw Dave Aston yellow-carded into the sin bin. Down to ten men, South battened down the shutters for the remainder of the half, relying on the speed and trickery of Mark Pears up front to keep the St Ives defence honest on the break.

After some gentle half-time arse-kicking from captain Kev, South came out with renewed determination. With eleven men back on the pitch, South started to venture towards the opposition's D again. Despite this, it was St Ives who opened the scoring with a smartly taken goal. The ball was hit right to left from the top of the D through a crowd of players for the left winger to deflect it in from just outside the far post.

Stung, South regrouped and pushed forward. On the wings, Tim Clapp on the right and Patrick Farmbrough, in his first league game for South on the left, were causing all sorts of problems for the St Ives defence. Arsenal was continuing to cause havoc up front and Villa seemed determined to make up for his enforced ten minutes of idleness at the end of the first half by running twice as hard in the second.

With the play increasingly shifting into St Ives's twenty-five, South won a succession of short corners but twice good strikes from Dave Monck were saved by the keeper. There were fifteen minutes left on the clock when the breakthrough finally came. Another push into the St Ives D saw Rob Barton pick up the ball, manoeuvre to create space and then jab the ball beyond the keeper.

On top and scenting a win, South refused to take their foot off the gas. A free hit was won just outside the St Ives D and the Monckosaurus stepped up to give the ball another taste of his particular hard-hitting punishment. Looking up, he spied the Cardinal lurking just outside the right post with Arsenal in front of him. Suddenly, Mark made a darting run, drawing his marker from in front of Kev just as the Monckosaurus unleashed the power, leaving the South captain to angle his stick and deflect the wide-bound ball past the stranded keeper.

Ten minutes to go and the 'big mo' was with South. With St Ives having no answer on the pitch, the game was thrown back into the mix by a second yellow card for South when Nick Bristowe, outstanding all game in the defensive midfield role, was judged to have verbally dissented an umpiring decision and received his marching orders.

St Ives seized their opportunity and, with bare minutes left on the clock, won a short corner. After a short pause while the umpire moved the goal posts another inch apart, the resulting shot was charged down and deflected off George Wych's stick high in the air towards goal. Standing on the line, Dave Monck instinctively raised his stick to protect those rough-hewn good looks and diverted the ball wide and over. The umpire however judged that the ball had been hit rather than blocked and signalled a penalty flick, which was despatched low to keeper Lino Di Lorenzo's right to level the scores.

On the overall balance of play, a draw was probably a reasonable result, but the late penalty flick was a bitter pill for South to swallow. Still undefeated in the league though, South came away proud of their performance and determined to make amends in their next game to get their promotion push back on course.

After the match, captain Kev Rowland said, "We all felt somewhat disapointed in the draw after the team's gutsy and hard working performance on the day. We had nearly twenty minutes with only ten men on the field due to yellow cards, giving the opposition an advantage. Sometimes the odds are against you but I'm sure what happened on the pitch will only make the guys hungry for the win next week…and the return game."