Ladies 1st XI 4-2 Towcester 1st XI

 

Goals: Sarah Cosford, Esther Keijbets, Lucy Ann Chacksfield, Amie Hone

 

Saints started the game with great vigour and positive attitude aiming to improve from last week’s performance.   Minutes into the game a quick free hit, taken by man of the match Lucy-Ann Chacksfield, was picked up by Amie Hone and converted by Sarah Cosford. 

Newly married Esther Keijbets took the opportunity to confidently slap a rebounded ball past the keeper to get the 2ndSaints goal.

The second half saw Saints continue with high energy , Lucy Ann Chacksfield got the 3rdgoal from a straight strike smashed past the keeper on a short corner.

Moments later Towcester managed to pull a goal back from a miss hit short corner to make it 3-1.

The 4thSaints goal came from a short corner picked off the keeper’s pads by Amie Hone who swept it into the goal.

Towcester managed to get one more goal off a straight strike from a Towcester short corner making the final score 4-2 to Saints.

 

 

Ladies 2ndXI 2- 1 Kettering 

 

Goals: Caz Whitehouse (2)

 

Saints started this must win game with confidence and after a shaky opening few minutes soon settled into the game. All the pressure was made by great forward running from Ellie Bleech and Becky Wilkinson. Sally Adler and Ness Kingston controlled the midfield with very little getting through to the defence.

 

Initially Saints were unable to capitalise on a shaky Kettering defence who struggled to deal with the pace and skill of Saints young attackers, supported by KJ Wilkins. But finally a short corner was awarded after relentless pressure and numerous fouls. The short corner was not quite according to plan but never the less, the ball found its way to Caz Whitehouse who made no mistake and buried the ball in the goal.

 

After half time, Saints continued with their attacking pressure and after a shot from Katie Barnetson was saved by the keeper, who’s save found Caz Whitehouse, who was on hand to double her goal tally and score Saints second. Kettering had few chances thanks to great defensive work, especially by Man of the match Molly Ogden. Unfortunately, a short corer was conceded against the run of play and a sweetly struck shot found the corner of the goal.

 

Kettering continued to press after their goal but Saints stood firm to claim a well deserved three points.

 

 

 

Mens 2ndXI 2-1 Leek 2ndXI

 

Goals: Martyn Cory, Gavin Markham

 

Saints set out in this game looking to avenge Leek for the defeat they inflicted on them earlier in the season. They started the game well as they pushed Leek back and moved the ball around well. However they were struggling to break through a stubborn defence. Midway in the half they won a short corner, which forward Martyn Cory converted with ease. The rest of the half saw Saints threaten but lacked that cutting edge in front of goal.

The second half was a more even affair, and clearly the next goal was going to be important, fortunately this went to Saints as a well worked short corner routine resulted in Gavin Markham deflecting the ball in at the far post. As the game progressed Saints began to sit back and gave away a soft goal. The final ten minutes saw some frantic defending from the home side and they held out to be deserved winners 2-1.

 

MOTM: Jon Noble – rolled back the years with a strong performance at the back

Joint DOTD: Marty Cory – failed to make the most of his 10 penalty corners!

Joint DOTD: Lewis Ward – for declaring himself fit before the game then failing to last more than 35 minutes!

 

Squad: Sam Biddle, Ben Northedge, Simon Stringer, Lewis Ward, Alex Mcindoe, Matt Gausden (c), Gavin Markham, Jon Noble, Grant Carlin, Andy Smith, Simon Sidhu, Martyn Cory, James Knibb.

 

 

 

Mens 2ndXI 2-10 Birmingham University 2ndXI (Sunday)

 

Goals: Andy Smith, Martyn Cory

 

Well the less said about this game the better, so having ended the first half 1-0 down following some poor marking, Saints looked like they could get something from this match away at Edgbaston Campus. However with a poor attitude and application, the second half saw Saints embarrassingly ship 9 goals. The only two shining moments from the second half was a well worked goal which Andy Smith converted, and a Martyn Cory drag flick. This was a huge disappointment on the back of a great result on Saturday.

 

Now onto the more enjoyable part of the day:

Having arrived over an hour before the game, the team were treated to some entertaining admissions from Ben ‘Billy Elliott’ Northedge. The ballet, Boyzone (twice), Take That, he just continued to dig himself a hole. And he seemed to misunderstand the phrase ‘testing the water’ after turning on the showers (and they say these Uni students are the future of our country!!). Following this Martyn ‘Ramsey’ Cory took centre stage as he proceeded to tell his team-mates at great length how best to re-heat a Sunday roast!!! It’s no wonder the team were half asleep during the game!!

 

The warm up was led by twinkle toes Northedge, who led the team through some triple runs, sissonne and plie.

Despite Ben’s best efforts, the DOTD vote was secured by Martyn Cory. His new cook book ‘ready, steady, microwave’ will be available in all good retailers soon and is highly recommended (if you want to send your kids to sleep!)   

 

Squad: Sam Biddle, Ben Northedge, James Miller, Kyle Taylor, Alex Mcindoe, Matt Gausden (c), Grant Carlin, Andy Smith, Matt Wilde, Martyn Cory, James Knibb, Athiq Thamby.

 

 

 

Mens 4thXI 5-2 Beeston 5thXI

Goals: Sam Bigley, Aiden Walker, Marcus SPencer-Brown, Tom Bradshaw (2)

" You don't win anything with kids!"

A young Northampton team with 7 under 18s ensured their run of form produced the correct result after a dissapointing loss to Rugby last week. The games was free flowing with both sides trying to attck and be positive all game. Saints took the lead with a smart goal by Sam Bigley after neat interplay withAidan Walker opened up the Beeston defense,this was cancelled out by a reverse stick shot by a Beeston forward to beat Ed Holt in goal. The game continued to be very open and the forward line of Pibworth, Bigley and Bradshaw sucessfully pulled the Beeston back line from sideline to sideline creating large gaps behind the defense allowing Walker to score for a half time lead of 2-1.

 

The second half witnessed a magnificent goal involving 4 young saints players in the Beston circle allowing Marcus Spencer Brown to glide a deflection past tthe Beeston GK. This was swiftly followed by a cannon of a ball through the home defense for Bradshaw to deflect past the wacthing keeper. Beeston pulled one back from a short corener but as they tired from chasing kids "15 years younger than me" as one Beeston defender put it they considered another well worked goal for Bradshaw to claim his second. Ed Holt was very safe at the back and kept out a definate goal right at the death.

 

 

West Bridgford 5th XI 2-1 Mens 5th XI

 

Attendance; 4

 

Tea; Sausage, Small baked potatoes, beans, cheese and coleslaw

 

In the news; Egypt kicking off

 

Sorry Saints Slump to Defeat

 

 

Not having learnt from last week’s lesson, Saint’s travelled to Nottingham with another patched up team which looked good on paper, including skilful youngster Ally Rose and £50M signing, Chris “Torres”  Godman.

 

Unfortunately, for the second week running, Saint’s squad proved to be less than the sum of it’s parts. Due to a lack of midfielders, Saints kicked off with a new 4-3-3 formation which, despite a few flashes of skill on the right from Joe Cliffe, Godman and Rose, meant that the visitors lacked any real width.

 

With most of the play going through the middle, Saints had no choice but to soak up the pressure and it was only Scott Bashford who was keeping the whites in the game.

George Roberts did his best a left back, mostly by manhandling players two feet taller than he is.

As is often the case though, Saints scored against the run of play, with Ally Rose scored a brilliantly taken back-stick shot half way through the first half.

A 1-0 lead then at half time flattered the visitors. Changing back to a 4-4-2 was too little, too late and the pattern of play was set with long balls from midfield being picked up by the oppo who then started to overrun Saints’ defence.

Bashford continued to keep Saints in contention, although not without much controversial flapping of legs.

West Bridgford inevitably equalised in the second half as midfield floundered and Cliffe’s legs were too slow to get back and prevent the goal.

The home team made it two shortly after when a short corner wasn’t quite stopped on the line by Roberts.

By no means a walkover, Saint’s could still win this division, but have now started to look over their shoulders.

 

MOM; George Roberts

DOD; Ally Rose (New boy)

Squad: Scott Bashford (GK), George Roberts, Steve Morris, Callum Scott-Collins, Joe Cliffe, Grant Stevens, David Henry (C), Ally Rose, Jon Keep, Rob Tee, Rob Carey, Chris Godman

 

Mens 6th XI 1-4 Rugby and East Warwickshire 4th XI

Goal Scorers: Will Gamble

The Fighting Sixes performance in the first half was better than in the second half. Some would say that it is because the credit crunch was worse in the Second half and there was a threat of snow interruption at Heathrow…

At half time we were 2 goals down.

35 minutes earlier…

Karl “Mr Blonde” Flowers arrived late with one of the umpires for the game. The pressure was already on the team as Dan “Dr Malcolm“Burge was seen practicing his dribble on to his back stick like the velociraptor in Jurassic Park.  

The half started with the F6s immediately on the back foot. Within a very short space of time Rugby and EW had put their first goal as a result of good pressure and below standard defence. Rob “Old Big ‘Ead” O’Donnell did well with his tackles, but confusion between the left and right backs seemed to be the F6s weakness.

Time and time again the F6s seemed to push up only to make poor choices and passes allowing excellent counters by Rugby and EW. Dermot ”Col. Nicholson” Cassidy and Karl ”Maj. Warden” McGregor tried to offer as many defensive options as possible but couldn’t stop the defence letting REW put in a second across the River Kwai.

Up front, the superstar was Gareth”Skywalker” Voss who worked well with Ross”Hans Solo” McLean and Will “Obiwan” Gamble, but successful strikes on the Death Star were just not happening. Chris “Charlie Croker” Easton, Nigel”Mr. Bridges” Riches and Jamie “Professor Peach” Hawkins just couldn’t move their minis fast enough to get the gold.

At half time, the mood was sombre. The F6s facing their credit card bills and 2 goals down just couldn’t lift their spirit.

After the break the F6s started well, hungry to get the first goal and put the pressure back on to REW. Adam “Forrest Gump” Shepherd did some good running to try and link up with the forwards, but their seemed to be no chocolates and the F6s were not getting quick passes through. The defensive short corner that resulted from errors in the D was diabolical. No structure in the defence let an easy ball in.

Some consolation returned with a phase of good pressure resulting in Will Gamble jabbing it in around the keeper’s legs.

Then, Paul ”Rocky” Crawford, bringing a striker down in his D  had to face a penalty flick which REW put in and earned Paul the joint honour (with Owen “Paulie” Jones) of “villain of the game gong.”

Teas:    Steaming Sausages, Golden Crispy Chips and Musical Fruit

MOM:   Gareth Voss (Paying the judges)

DOD:     Paul Crawford and Owen Jones (Siamese hangovers)

 

Squad: Dermot Cassidy(c); Paul Crawford (GK); Karl Flowers; Rob O’Donnell; Dan Burge; Owen Jones; Gareth Voss; Will Gamble; Chris Easton; Jamie Hawkins; Ross McLean;  Adam Shepherd;  Karl McGregor and Nigel Riches.

 

 

Mixed U11s vs Welford U11s (tournament)

 

Saints Under 11’s recorded a 10-1 and a 7-1 victory over Welford in a ‘double header’ competition last Sunday. Despite the cold weather, many supporters turned out to watch these mixed 7-a-side games, The standard of play by both teams was great to watch. Saints scorers were Daniel Newsway, Arvind Pooni, Rhys Noble, Archie Darby, Lewis Pywell and Toby Clifton. Welford worked extremely hard during both games but tired towards the end.  Saints were able to rotate three substitutes at any one time, with their fresher legs making a big difference as the games progressed .  The Welford goalkeeper deserves a special mention for making some fine saves but even he couldn’t stop the Saints forwards finding the back of the net.  Saints Under 9’s also recorded a victory over their Welford rivals.

Squad : Rhys Noble, James Morris, Samuel Hardwick, Arvind  Pooni, Sophie Main, Daniel Newsway, Lewis Pywell, Toby Clifton, Lauren Dawes, Imogen Thorpe