Manorbier have spent much of this season playing high quality football. At the start of the season, on firm pitches in good playing conditions, they won. During the middle of the season, where wind, rain and mud conspired against their footballing philosophy, they lost.

But last weekend, on a sloping, bobbly pitch, with a biting wind blowing and the opposition seemingly having over-inflated all of their footballs into brain-cell killing lumps of stone, Manorbier prevailed - and even showed a touch of their trademark verve in taking a table-climbing three points back from Hubberston (writes D.B.).

A familiar line-up took the pitch away at Hubberston, injected with a dash of youthful exuberance in the form of Jake Webster - who had earned his starting place in the first team following a series of impressive cameos off the bench.

When The Wall stepped forward as captain, winning the toss, and choosing to play down the hill with the wind (is there a pitch in Pembrokeshire where the prevailing wind does not blow downhill?), Manorbier knew they would need to prosper in the first 45. They didn't.

In the opening exchanges, the visitors struggled to get to grips with the swirling wind and a pitch which must drop fully 10 metres from top to bottom. But as anyone who has played football in Pembrokeshire will tell you, playing with the wind and the slope can in fact be a hindrance - and so it proved to be as Manorbier over-hit passes and found themselves seduced into taking speculative long range pot shots, to no avail.

It was Hubberston who crafted the first opening, clipping a free-kick into the box past a static defence and finishing past a stranded Llewellyn for a 1-0 lead.

Not for the first time this season, Manorbier deployed the long throw-in to winkle out a goal and get themselves back into the match. Using the wind (it was impossible not to), the Foreigner launched a Rory Delap ball into the box, which led to a double OG - with two Hubberston defenders flicking the ball onwards and ultimately into the net.

Parity remained until half-time, but Manorbier drew upon their division three experience to remind themselves that it could well be easier playing into the wind and up the hill in the second half.

And so it proved to be, but not before a couple of scares. Just after the re-start, Hubberston were awarded a penalty when Tom Grover had his hand in the wrong position when trying to control a ball inside the box, and gave away the spot kick.

What followed was the turning point of the game. In what can only be described as a sub-Southgate shocker, the Hubberston penalty-taker flubbed the ball like my four-year-old daughter using her wrong foot, leaving Llewellyn to happily pick up the rolling ball, a good 15 seconds after it was kicked.

With that lucky escape, Manorbier started to control the game, and it was Lane who nudged the visitors in front, clipping the ball round the 'keeper following a shambles in the Hubberston defence.

The game was then lifted by the incandescence of Ben Hall. A weaving run, which incised the opposition midfield and back-line with the precision of a surgeon, taking on and beating fully five players, before a cool finish at the near post, was a moment of true brilliance which made a mockery of the 70 minutes of miss-kicks and the general untidiness of the football before it.

Hubberston pulled a goal back against the run of play, but the scoreline more accurately reflected Manorbier's dominance after Blackwell burst through the middle, rounded the 'keeper and passed the ball into the net to seal the game 4-2.

A note of thanks also to Manorbier's ever-giving shop and post office, for supplying vitamin C and fructose calories in the shape of ripe juicy oranges, and spurring Manorbier's second team on to a 1-0 home victory against Pembroke Borough.