Mens 3 vs Cambridge South 4 

The Ives 3s got together on a slightly gloomy Saturday afternoon for their game against Cambridge South 4s. As the opposition was placed below the 3s in the table they were poised for a good result and another win to get over the loss from last week.

After warm-up and the obligatory motivational speeches, St Ives had pushback and got the ball rolling. Unfortunately, the 3s had their usual shaky start and the first couple of minutes saw some passes at less-than-match speed and accuracy, putting the defense under more pressure. A quick couple of passes from South after another shaky pass gave, saw one of their forwards on his own in front of substitute keeper Owen and finished in the short corner of the goal to provide South 4s with the lead.

Luckily this really woke up the Ives side and play instantly started to get much better, passing improved and movement off the ball created some great openings and Ives started to put South under pressure in their own half. Another series of good passing and very nice hockey saw the ball end up with Jack Matlby, who hit the ball through the legs of the goalie to equal the score.1-1, which also was the score at half-time.

Half-time chat was all positive and Ives agreed that if they played like they did the last 25 minutes of the first half they should surely come up on top.

That was exactly what St Ives did and pressure was instantly put back on the South defense pushing them back on their own half for much of the second half. There were several chances that just missed the last little bit of luck the become a goal, and with the back line of Carl Compton, Matt Jago and Joep Goode always aware of the quick breaks of the South forwards the game stayed in balance for the first 15-20 minutes of the second half.

After that St Ives got a series of short corners and some very nice combinations between Matt Jaogo and Jon Wildin saw Jon with a great opportunity and the second goal for St Ives. From that point onwards St Ives kept the pressure on and while South got more and more desperate the shielding of their back line meant that they never really got another chance to equalise and St Ives did not get another goal which led to the final score of 2-1 for St Ives and 3 very valuable points. Isaac Morgan received the Man of Match vote for his continuous hard work in midfield, but a great game from the whole team, which they hopefully bring again next week against City of Peterborough.