Thanks to an Arctic wind of gargantuan proportions this beautiful game frequently became very ugly.

Comrades, backed by the breeze, took only three minutes to storm ahead, Shaun Swift lifting the ball over the advancing keeper.

Both men between the sticks had a tough time with the ball dipping and swirling completely at random.

Life wasn't much easier for outfield players as passes either sailed straight out of play or hung up in mid-air.

Unsurprisingly, decent football came at a premium.

Comrades enjoyed the best of it early on, Robbie Burch twice wasteful, and their shooting finally started to find some accuracy, Ward, Burch and Singh all forcing Paul Hedges into action.

Academicals rode out the pressure to grab a goal on the break. Paul Doswell collected a through-ball and stroked it into the bottom corner.

On the balance of play it was perhaps undeserved, but a credit to the team for the way they battled against the conditions.

Rather than be inspired, Academicals found themselves behind again by half time. First Burch supplied a cool finish inside the area. Then Richard Burton hit a decent shot from outside it. Hedges got a touch but the ball trickled over the line.

Half-time changes of end meant the wind gave Academicals a chance to press.

In a mirror image of the first half, only three minutes had gone when Doswell scored his second.

Comrades were defending valiantly; Burton summing up their commitment with a tremendous brave block from an Ashley Moore shot. To put it another way, it hit him bang in the face.

There was nothing he or anyone else could do when substitute Thanos Gritz unleashed an unstoppable shot to make it 3-3 before being mobbed by his team-mates.

Academicals could sense the win and Doswell missed a sitter of a header.

But by the end it was Comrades kicking themselves. Burch was involved in a hat-trick of misses, wasting two chances and setting up Swift for another, only to watch him allow the keeper a regulation save.