Mens 3 vs Long Sutton 2

On a dreary miserable day, St Ives 3s faced a very tough match up away against the league leaders. With everyone changed appropriately we headed to the pitch.

Struggling for players with Dan up a Hill somewhere and Pete also unavailable. It was already looking like an uphill struggle (no pun intended Dan) as we believed we were going to start with 9. We eventually started with a bare 11.

Our illustrious captain DJ commanded sensible play and to not concede in the first 10 minutes.

We conceded within the first 10 minutes. 1-0 to the home side following a saved short corner and a deflection off a JT leg past a helpless Denman. It looked certain to be an expected Home victory.

But Ives used the goal as a wake up call; with the squad now a depthy 12 men. A clearance from the back fell to Hingston who calmly collected the ball and overlayed it to Isaac who did well to continue the move. Some intricate D play led to Andy crossing the ball for a waiting Hingston on the line before the defender cleared his lines back to Andy as he finished calmly. 

Half Time. 1-1 with it all to play for.

The second half was littered with St Ives counter attacks and some excellent defending from the defensive brick wall that was Tudor. Jago was finding space for the forwards on the wings and DJ and Andy in the screens were applying the training into matches. 

The best chance of the half probably fell to Hingston; who, after a ball from Isaac was on the P-Spot but put this narrowly wide on the reverse on the bounce after the keeper closed down the angle exceptionally well. 

Long Sutton were clearly extremely agitated at their lack of a performance as admitted by their Centre Back who claimed 'We underestimated you'. They were so agitated, in fact, that they decided to play Rugby for the last five minutes with someone 3x Isaac's size and age clearing him out during a promising looking counter attack. The same player then also doing this a minute later resulting in a well deserved yellow card.

St Ives even nearly breached the goal in the dying seconds but we were unable to convert the chance properly and it ended all square.

If youd have asked a soggy 9 men before push back - 'Would you take 1-1 lads?' We would have agreed. But considering a fairly dominant performance we could have taken away a win.

Honours even with Cambridge City 5s next week