Men's 3rd XI 4-6 Belper 3rd XI

Scorers: Knibbs (3) Pibworth

 

Saints faced a Belper side who in recent weeks have been scoring for fun. The muddy wet pitch wasn’t as fun. After starting fairly confidently it was Belper who caught Saints napping to tap home the opener. This was followed by end to end action, with Rose unlucky not to score. Saints did however hit the mark, twice. Both times James Knibbs was fed the ball through, majestically scoring from the top of the D leaving the Belper defenders lost in awe. Same could have been said for Dale’s arial, if indeed it hadn’t gone the wrong side of the fence. Belper fought back and scored a clever penalty corner, lifting the ball deftly over Thompson. Saints however had the last say in the first half, Hunter crashing through defenders to cleverly pass / badly mishit straight to Pibworth to divert past the keeper. 3-2 at half time.

The opening first 5 minutes of the second half should have seen saints establish a firm lead, but by not using the chances created, Belper had weathered the storm. From here they equalised, only once again for Knibbs to crash the party, (only just) after deciding a tap in was too easy, so made the reverse, much to the bemusement of the others. Saints turned their attention off and the lapse of concentration allowed the Belper attackers twice to get in 1-on-1 with Thompson, scoring once. Instead of being happy with the draw Saints were exposed as they were caught again to go 5-4 down. In the final minutes it was hard luck as Belper struck a sixth to win the game, though Hunter was lucky to only see green. Saints felt they deserved something from the match but the end of the day if you concede 5 you deserve to lose.

As we didn’t have a vote I’ll decide

MOTM: James Knibbs – Great Strikes for the hatrick

DOTD: Choice between Ally Rose (fashion Sense) Adam Croutear(almost getting left in Belper) or Andy Dale (for his misdirected aerials)

 

 

 

 

Men’s 5th XI 1-1 Beeston

 

Goals: Matt Kerr

 

So to the game, Saints knew that if they were to win this game they would go into the Christmas break top of the league. They passed the ball around well and creatied chances from the start but it was Beeston who struck first with the winger in open space crossing the ball to another unmarked player on the back post to slot the ball in an open goal. This was a major blow to the saint’s team with heads going down. However Saints soon got their act together with Rob Cary and Hugo attacking down our left. The ball came loose to Dave Henry, who passed it to Matt Kerr, who slid it under the goalie to draw Northampton level.There were chances for both teams, but both sides failed to capitalise on these chances. Jeremy Wan managed to keep the scores level at half time by saving a flicked attempt at goal sending the ball skywards and into safety.

 

The second half soon came around with Saints again passing the ball around well, getting into the opposition’s D and causing trouble for the Beeston defence. The unfortunate departure of Karl McGregor with a torn calf muscle and their captain Dave Henry due to the ball hitting his hand made the last 15/20mins interesting but saints held strong and defended as a team and deserving of the draw. Saints could go away feeling like they have battled well even though they did not get the win; a point against top of the league is not a bad result.

 

Squad: Scott Bashford, Steve Morris, Karl Mcgregor, Jeremy Wan, Harry Stobart, Hugo Day, David Henry, Rob Tee, Matt Kerr, Matt Caton, Gareth Voss, Jacob Price, Rob Cary

 

 

Man of the match: Gareth “I like singing” Voss

 

DOTD: Rob “Money Grabber” Cary

 

Action from the Badgers 3-0 victory over Long Buckby

 

 

Boys U18s 1-1 Aylesbury U18s

 

Goals: Ally Rose

 

Match: The saints got off to a bad start with Team Manager Tony Brennan getting half the team lost in Aylesbury only to be rescued by Matt Wilde who also driving managed to come and find the team and lead them to the pitch with time to spare.

After a great warm up lead by Alexander Rose the team then proceeded to an inspirational team talk by Tony and Coach Ben Stephenson to then have the loudest team huddle by far.

 

Then thanks to Matt Caton’s sound advice of "tails never fails" captain Matt Wilde  won the toss getting the saints push back... GAME ON!

 

Saints started the first half brightly with the first 10 minutes showing there attacking skill and were unlucky not to score on many occasions most just wide of the left post. The opposition then started to wake up and play good strong wide hockey but some great defending from captain Matt stopped them from getting any attempts off on goal. The opposition then got their first attempt on goal through a short corner and scored with their flick for them fortunately glancing of goalkeeper Kurt Jenkins glove after a great dive to save.. 1 nil to Aylesbury. Saints then went on to attack with ferocity with many attempts again just going wide of the post. A quick counter from the opposition quickly saw a promising saints attack turn into a fast paced counter which if not for some great keeping by Kurt and a spectacular diving save by Matt C could have been up further. After a few more attack and short corners it was noticed by the saints that the oppositions goal post where off there line which after stopping time was promptly fixed.

 

Half time 1- nil to Aylesbury

 

The second half started well with both teams having their fair share of attacking opportunities. Mid way into the second half a great opportunity from Greg Summers after running into the D and beating the keeper shot then from the tight angle which unfortunately slid just past the post. Saints pushed on and solace arrived 15 minutes from time when our Scotland international Alexander scored during a short corner routine. The last 5 minutes of the match where largely spend in the saints half but some solid defending and great man marking only allowed the opposition to get a short corner which was due to questionable calls but none the less saints kept there cool and ran out with the lessening energy remaining only for the opposition to fail to stop the ball.

 

Great Under 18’s debut for Lewis Moran and Evan Morris

 

 

Team: Kurt Jenkins (GK), Matt Wilde (C). Matt Caton, Alexander Rose, Greg Summers, Lewis Moran, Tarak Patel, Daniel Fieldwin, Tom Wightman, Evan Morris, Max Heaphy, Sean Henry, Ben Renyolds, Ed Holt

 

Coaching Staff: Tony Brennan, Ben Stephenson

Supporters: Emma Brennan, Sue Wightman and Sue Wilde and at times the subs

 

DOD: Greg   MOM: Greg

 

Special thanks to: Tony for buying the team tea's (literally)