First league win

South ventured south to Edmonton for their first away match of the league season and on a hot day, the team managed to secure their first win.

Kick off was delayed by nearly an hour after the original pitch was inspected and deemed to be too dangerous to play on by the referee, with deep rabbit holes and dog mess. Just as well, as the playing area was tiny in comparison to what we are used to playing on and the nets had seen much better days, perhaps with trawler captain in a previous life. Thankfully, after a few phone calls, an alternative, full size pitch was found nearby, complete with grass, corner flags and fully functioning and secured nets, and so we finally got under way.

The first half was an uneventful 0-0 affair, with both teams sizing each other up. Harvesters had the better of the opportunities, shooting wide left, wide right and over the bar before Adam had our best 1st half chance, only to see his finish blocked off the line by a vigilant defender after an excellent cross from Luca.

The second half kicked off the proper action, with Harvesters building the pressure with some excellent possession and game play creating chance after chance, but finishing was still going high and wide or trying to shoot from an impossibly narrow angle, rather than cutting the ball back for an easy tap-in. Finally, the deadlock was broken and Luca slotted home from an excellent ball feed through from Charlie who had won possession from Edmonton on the halfway line, with a quarter of the game to go. Our goal seemed to inspire Edmonton into action and they looked dangerous on the counter attack using speed as their main weapon down their right hand side and with 10 minutes to go, they equalised on the break, with Harrison making an excellent 1 on 1 save, only to see the loose ball unluckily fall to another Edmonton attacker who levelled the game.

With the high temperatures and South restricted to just 12 fit players, energy levels were starting to drop and Edmonton could sense an opportunity to snatch an unlikely win against the run of play and we needed a plan B. Max W hadn't played up until that point because of a rib injury from the previous game, but he asked to come on at 1-1 and the fresh legs in midfield seemed to up the Harvesters' tempo again and with just 2 minutes left, an excellent long throw-in from Max Q gave Archie the opportunity to pivot in the box and put the final chance away for a narrow 2-1 victory.