South Mens 3s travelled to March with a very unfamiliar looking team and if a few decisions had gone the other way may have come away with a result.

Saturday Morning arrived and stand-in Captain John Benedikz was still juggling players to make sure he had an 11 to take to March. Oddly 16:00 away in deepest darkest Fenland did not prove to be the exciting draw for players I expected it would be. Missing 11 regular 3s players, South travelled to March with only 6 regulars, with the remainder being made up of 4s who had the week off and 2s. All of whom I thank for putting themselves forward.

The game started, as expected, amidst the fenland drizzle, with March (freshly relegated from 4NW), pushing forward and forcing South onto the defensive. March’s first goal was not long in coming when a harmless looking cross clipped off the foot of a defender and rolled into the goal. South then slipped further behind when a March foot was not spotted and the ball was driven into the top of the net.

The new look South midfield of Kern, Jelly, Glover and Deacon were forced to spend most of their time defending, however on several occasions in each half, South took the game to March and with Rob Barton and James Raikes up front, South reminded March they were going to have to fight hard for their result.

Just before half-time, South had their own stroke of luck, when a forward pass from Matt Kern was left by the keeper at the top of the D to run out for a 16, only for Rob Barton, to nip round him and role the ball into an empty net, 2v1 and South were back in with a chance.

Half Time March 2v1 South

The second half unfortunately started as the first had, with March finishing off a well worked move to edge 3v1 ahead. South began to push forward again and got back into the game with an excellently placed Rob Barton special from the top of D, 3v2. South and South continued to search of an equaliser which they were cruelly denied when a diving Ian Glover turned the ball into the net, only for it to be ruled out (correctly) for a back stick.

This spurred South on and as they pushed forward with the game ticking on, gaps began to appear as legs tired and March hit South twice in the last 10 minutes to add gloss to a scoreline for them in a game that turned on a couple of decisions. That said March were clearly the stronger team and deserved their victory. The south defence of Sneade, Sharp, Evans and Benedikz and in particular Man of the Match Shabhaz Ali were under near constant pressure (I lost count of the number of shorts after 13), but South were always in with a sniff of a result until the very latter stages of the game.