In an impressively clinical display featuring strong, well-knit performances in all areas of the field, South overcame a young and skilful Alford side by a margin which accurately reflected the balance of the game.

Alford, with a talented group of players who have worked their way up through the club together over a number of years, clearly demanded respect on the strength of their recent record, which included a victory over March 1sts, a narrow defeat to Ely and three-pointers against virtually everyone else, but South started off positively, working it around the field to get the feel of the ball on the stick. Alford quickly threatened, however, as a pair of strikers broke free hoping to latch onto a through pass but keeper Steve Parker, alert on a crisp, bright morning, got there first and used his muscle and timing to win the challenge and fire out to the wing. Chris Graveling and Matt Readman held off a couple of enthusiastic bursts and then James Cobbe, penned in the left corner, turned niftily on 2½p (in new money) to pop a very neat pass to skipper Chris Baker, who was ready and waiting for a feed as ever.

The action rapidly switched to the other end, where Al Sinclair drove into the D and dismissed the close attentions of three defenders before laying off to Rob Garrett, who fired hard into the roof of the net off the keeper's pads for a welcome first goal of the league season. Graveling had a tanking surge diagonally across midfield but South were soon called upon to defend. Leo Tomita and John Benedikz capably dismantled an attack down the left, while at an Alford free hit Baker called urgently for "sticks down!" only to find the ball making unwontedly (and unwantedly) close acquaintance with his left ear as it was generously undercut.

Chris Massey, fitting smoothly and confidently into the right-back position, weaved his way out of a tight corner at the back and there then ensued a see-saw passage of play in which Readman exploited his attacking skills to set up opportunities for Baker, Garrett and Russell Johnson to engage the Alford back line and Alford hit back with direct and forceful running to draw fine tackles from Graveling and the ubiquitous Garrett. Baker combined well with Keith Hewitt before a breakdown near the D, while a rampaging five-man move started by Benedikz also unravelled in the same area. Alford then won a brace of penalty corners, crowding the goal unpleasantly on the first and then working a neat slip to the left on the second, at which Parker was down quickly to beat off the slapped hit. He then had to bar the door to an ominous-looking follow-up before Benedikz cleared and Tomita and Baker spirited the ball away upfield.

South had to work hard to find gaps for defensive break-outs, though, and Parker soon had to clear again as Alford got through on the left when the firewall suddenly melted. But in perhaps the decisive passage of the game, Garrett and Baker did the hard yards in midfield before Hewitt broke free to unleash a stinging shot which was well parried by the keeper. Unluckily for the latter, the rebound only went as far as the predatory Garrett, who made no mistake with a reverse shot to double the lead and his own personal tally on nineteen minutes.

Despite this setback, Alford still managed to see plenty of the ball, but Graveling and Tomita were impassable and Benedikz made some astute interceptions. Meanwhile, Sinclair and Hewitt were looking increasingly dangerous in the opposition half and Hewitt several times gained the by-line to put in awkward, well-angled crosses, one of which had the keeper diving and everyone else oohing and aahing as it sped tantalisingly across the face of the goal.

South's first short on twenty-five minutes gradually dissolved after several attempts at a workaround but the home side, while taking care of business back at the ranch, began to pioneer more extensively in enemy country. Massey, Baker and Sinclair interpassed smartly to send off a long ball which Johnson, playing with increasing skill and savoir faire as the season progresses, nearly chased down, and then Benedikz and Hewitt magicked a couple of scooped passes up the left to gain unlikely ground when the advantage seemed to be with Alford.

Hewitt forechecked with the kind of relentless determination that no defender is ever comfortable with as South enjoyed a period of clear dominance. Garrett, embarking on a long, raking run, took several men with him before the ball just squeaked away and Alford had difficulty in gaining any worthwhile possession in midfield. Just before half time, however, they had a gilt-edged opportunity to cut the deficit when intercepting a South hit out and finding themselves on a two-man break with all the aces. But last man Tomita, with finely-honed positional sense, edged the ball-carrier wider and wider before coolly intercepting and clearing what he had turned into an inevitable cut-inside pass.

Thankful for this narrow escape and conscious of how quickly an identical lead had evaporated last week, South were on their mettle at the start of the second half. But Alford appeared rejuvenated (if that is possible in a side with an average age of seventeen) and the South defensive corps had to pull all the stops out to guard their advantage. After Readman's decisive reversed intervention, Alford attacked the right and won a short which was struck firmly but stopped dead in its tracks and outed by Graveling. Then, in the face of another onslaught, Readman won an arm-wrestling competition with stick glued to the floor and Cobbe again displayed his appetite for the defensive challenge. Parker kicked clear before a South five-yard infringement earned another penalty corner, at which the striker side-stepped the rushing horde, closed in fast and unleashed a hard flick that seemed from the wrist to be aimed to Parker's right. It flew to the left instead but Parker, retaining balance and mobility, reacted instinctively to get his left pad horizontal and airborne and tip the ball over the bar. The grimness continued, though, as both Readman and Graveling put in uncompromising tackles which drew a cry of "Timber!" from the sidelines, and the ball dribbled horribly around in the D for ages as Alford tried to deliver the killer blow.

Eventually, South got out of the woods and, though Alford still pressed and won a fifth short corner which Parker repelled after reading a disguised hit, Hewitt ranged widely up front and more chances came. Readman, playing higher up than of late, slid through a lovely pass to Garrett, who saw the keeper coming, slipped it under him but just missed his hat-trick by inches. Then Hewitt, finding space, cracked a fine shot which had left corner written all over it until the keeper made an excellent stick save, the rebound from which Sinclair dispatched with right corner written all over it, only to see an amazing last-ditch recovery by a defender on the line.

South remained composed in defence, with Massey and Cobbe showing poise to winkle a pass out to jack-in-the-box Readman, Tomita gaining valuable breathing-space with his well-camouflaged slap-hits from defence and Graveling seeming to act as a fly-paper to the buzzing Alford forwards. Alford too often failed to create movement off the ball at this stage and their midfield became a little static, allowing Garrett and Hewitt especially - with Baker as a pivot - to claim a big share of elbow-room. Hewitt winged a snapshot just wide, then Hewitt, fed by Sinclair, rounded the defence and put in a great, though unconverted cross.

Alford repeatedly lured themselves into well-tenanted areas where Readman and Graveling, sticks flicking out like lizards' tongues, eagerly snatched what was on offer, while Garrett, difficult to dispossess with his pace and long reach, continually caused problems and was again unlucky to be denied when tenaciously hanging on after being tackled by the diving keeper. South ringed Alford's sixteens with intent, keeping them under the cosh, and the pressure eventually told after sixty-two minutes, when, after a fine run from Sinclair on the left, Hewitt read the play beautifully and squared the ball across the top of the D, bypassing the keeper, for skipper Baker to slot coolly home for his first goal in six league games.

The remainder of the game saw South well in control, with Massey distributing easefully at the back and Hewitt, a serial irritant to the Alford defence, just missing with two further hard strikes. South failed to score with either of their further short corners but secured the clean sheet when Alford's sixth effort just before time was cleared by Graveling and ushered swiftly out of danger by the spry Johnson.

This victory, which was surprisingly South's first at the Leys in this campaign, should lift the team's confidence greatly as the Christmas break approaches. Another strong defensive performance was supplemented by good midfield cohesion and an attack with a bit of devil to it. The skill and aggression of Sinclair and Hewitt formed an excellent counterpoint to the pace of Garrett and Johnson, substantially increasing the danger quotient up front, and it was gratifying, too, to see South use their experience in other parts of the field to win most of the fifty-fifty balls going. Alford, who played the game in commendable spirit, are still above South and will doubtless continue to be one of the contenders in what is again proving to be a very interesting division. If South can maximise their pre-Christmas points tally by beating Boston next week, however, they will not be far short of second-placed March I going into the second half and, given reasonable luck and good availability, they can justifiably hope to make a further impact in the New Year.