Loughbourough University 2nd XI 0-2 Ladies 1st XI

Scorers: Esther Keijbets, Amie Hone
 
Another early start took the Ladies 1st team away to Loughbourough University. Knowing they would be up against a young and fit side, Saints knew they would have to use all their experience and team work to come away with a win.  Saints looked like they were still half asleep at the start of the game with Loughbourough putting the Saints defence under pressure causing them to make a few errors.  Saints had a lucky escape after a defensive error allowed one of the Loughbourough forwards to pick up the ball at the top of the D with only the keeper to defend the shot, however luckily for Saints the shot narrowly missing the goal.  This was the wake up call Saints needed and with some good work from the midfield and forwards Saints held off the pressure until half time.
 
After an inspirational team talk from coach Gavin Markham, Saints stepped up a level and started playing their hockey, playing the ball around the Loughbourough players and making some great runs.  Finally Saints hard work paid off winning a short corner that was expertly converted with a strike from player of the match Esther Keijbets.  Saints continued to work as a team with some great possession and switching of the ball around the back from the defence.  Saints 2nd goal was scored from open play by Amie Hone who's shot took a deflection off one of the Loughbourough defence.  Saints looked strong until the end and came away with a well deserved win and great team performance.  The Ladies are now joint top of the league, with one league game left before the Christmas break.
 
Player of Match: Esther Keijbets

Mens 1st XI 7-2 Warwick 1st XI

Goals: Gareth Parker (3), Dave Saunders, Ben Scott (3) pc

Saints started very brightly and went 1-0 up within 45 seconds of the start through Gareth Parker but Warwick quickly responded with a breakaway goal. Saints displayed more fight and energy than in previous weeks and went ahead again through Captain Ben Scott, coolly converting a short corner. Scott extended the home sides lead again with a short corner. A second from Parker saw saints go 4-1 up before Warwick responded with a penalty flick. Dave Saunders restored saints three goal cushion before half time.

A very professional performance in the second half saw saints finish the game 7-2 winners with both Ben Scott and Gareth Parker sealing hat tricks.

Harborne 2nd XI 6-2 Mens 2nd XI

Goals: Grant Carlin, Liam Cassidy

Man Flu, Hot Fuzz and Poetry, and that’s just before the game!

Saturday got off to a bad start with the late withdrawal of Alex McIndoe, who became a victim of the deadly man flu virus! The journey to the bright lights of Harborne proved eventful! James Knibb sealed his DOTD award on route as he made some interesting hand signals to his team-mates in the car behind, only to discover the car behind was in fact the police!! Whilst in the other car Grant Carlin and Liam Cassidy’s romance blossomed as they tried to rival the great Shakespeare at poetry. Pete Riches got horribly lost in Birmingham centre, and had to rely on some sketchy directions from James Knibb to get to the pitch. Amazingly he made it to the pitch in plenty of time!

Missed opportunities cost Saints dearly!

Onto the game itself! The game started off at a frantic pace, and Harborne got the first goal within 10 minutes, following a sweeping move from side to side. As Harborne continued to pile forward and overload Saints down the right hand side, it was no surprise when Harborne got a second. Despite this early setback, Saints carried on playing some great hockey, and they deservedly got a goal back as they launched a superb counter-attack, resulting in Grant Carlin tapping in from a few yards out. The rest of the half was closely fought but every now and then Harborne just stepped up a gear, and with minutes to go before half-time, they scored a third from a penalty corner.

For once, Saints actually produced a great second half performance! They soaked up the pressure well and time and time again they launched some fast moving counter-attacks. Unfortunately they were up against a formidable goal keeper who produced 3 top class saves to deny Saints a goal. When he wasn’t there his defence was as another shot was cleared off the line. Other chances were wasted as well when the goal was gaping. As these chances went begging you knew it would only be a matter of time until Harborne punished Northampton. And this was the case as they scored 3 quick goals to quash any hope Saints had of getting back into the game. Late in the game Saints did get a deserved goal, as Liam Cassidy was in the right place at the right time (although James Knibb still claims he got the last touch on it!).

This was a harsh result on Saints but it showed them the difference between being top (like Harborne) and near the bottom of the league like Saints. If you don’t take your chances then you won’t win anything!

Other points of interest:

• Andy Smith– I have to mention his land mine incident at Thursday night training and also his huge windmill shot during the game that flew miles over the goal!
• Kyle ‘Hobbit’ Taylor – I know he’s got little legs so it feels like he’s running further than everyone else, but we did possibly the shortest distance sprint warm up ever!

MOTM: Grant Carlin – a commanding display in centre midfield.

DOTD:James Knibb,for reason mentioned above

Squad: Sam Biddle (GK), Simon Stringer, Pete Riches, Lewis Ward, Ben Northedge, Matt Gausden (c), Athiq Thamby, Liam Cassidy, Grant Carlin, Andy Smith, Kyle Taylor, Martyn Cory, James Knibb

Mens 3rd XI 4-1 West Bridgford3rd XI

Goals: Dan Rose (2), Jason Hillier, Matt Swansborough

 
Saints hosted an experienced West Bridgford side in a game between two teams both in need of the points. Buoyed by a 14 man squad, Saints set about their warm up with good intensity, optimistic of a good result. Miller’s team talk focused on the fact that we had been slow starting in the last few weeks, and needed to hit the ground running.
 
Dan Rose heeded Miller’s words when put through in the first minute of the game, where he produced a cool finish to out the home side 1-0 up. After 5 minutes, Saints forced their first penalty corner. Jason Hillier’s strike proved too hot for the West Bridgeford keeper to hold, and the score was doubled at 2-0. Two further penalty corners followed in quick succession although, neither tested the visiting keeper.
 
The first ten minutes had acted as a wake up call for the away side and they soon found their rhythm, with the game settling down into a more even affair. Both sides had further opportunities to score in the first half and Phil Preen made a number of good stops through the half. Saints main attacking threat came through James Askew and Sean Henry up the right hand side, with Gavin Markham and Jon Noble supporting through the middle. The forward trio of Rose, Brimyard and Swansborough looked lively throughout with a number of chances created, however the score remained 2-0 at half time.
 
The Second half was again evenly matched; with no clear cut chance in the early exchanges. Ten minutes in however, the visitors struck back with a well worked ball drilled into the Saints D and coolly slotted into the goal. This acted as a reminder to the home side that the game wasn’t over. The game remained even, but with 15 minutes to go, after some trickery by Dan Rose in the D, Matt Swansborough was passed the ball in space, and slotted the ball through the keeper’s pads to restore the two goal lead.
 
Phil Preen was again called into action to make a couple of outstanding saves to ensure the visitor’s deficit was not reduced once more. More pressure came from the visiting side, with Hillier, Miller, Wilde and Askew defending resolutely. With ten minutes to go, the experienced visiting side went down from eleven to ten players, then ten to nine players in very quick succession. This all but put pay to the visiting side as an attacking threat, and allowed Saints to score a forth goal with five minutes remaining when Dan Rose swept the ball home after being found in the D from a Nigel Down cross.
 
MOTM: Phil Preen for a number of top notch saves
DOTD: James Miller for…A) Starting the warm up, breaking for ten minutes so we all got cold again, and then carrying on the warm up. B) For lack of any form of half time sustenance, and C) for leaving the fines meeting early to go to ‘Kent’ – not sure if this was a euphemism James?!      

Squad: Phil Preen, James Miller, Matt Wilde, Jason Hillier, Jim Askew, Gavin Markham, Jon Noble, Ian McIlwaine, Sean Henry, Dan Rose, Chris Brimyard, Matt Swansborough, Nigel Down, Ant Czaicki                                                 

Saints braved the winter chill on Saturday to travel up to Highfields Sports Centre to take on Beeston 4s who were top of the league. everyone got there in good time apart from Jim Phipp's car who had to stop for warm sausage rolls on the way!!

After a really chilly warm up run by Gary which involved dodging cars on the access road, we got under way with Beeston enjoying some quality possession. Saints stood off too much giving the Bees too much respect but after 5 minutes Saints were contesting the game with some intelligent runs from Tom Bradshaw down the right flank. Beeston opened the scoring with a well worked right wing move to leave GK Holt no chance at the bask post, unfortunatley they scored again in the next two minutes to lead 2-0.

However this didn't deter the Saints who according to the Beeston skipper played the best half of hockey against them all season, quality spells from Gary Paterson and Chris Rowlands in centre midfield saw the black and gold create several opportunities with Sidhu and Ellison shooting wide. Half time saw the score remain the same due to the dogged nature of the Saints resistance.

Shortly after half time Beeston added to the score with a smart deflection into the roof of the net from a short corner for the best goal of the game. again the Saints battled hard and enjoyed several chances from open play falling mainly to Ellison whose reverse stick shooting was nothing if not spectacular!

Beeston's control of the ball gave them a dominant 5 minutes when they circled the Saints goal and fed many passes into the D to be foiled by the dogged tackling of Wightman and Phipps. The rest of the half was very evenly matched but Saints failed to convert their open field opportunities and  finished  a clear second according to the score but not in terms of effort and perservearance.

 Probably the best performance of the 4's this year with a special mention to Max Heaphy for his Pele like trick to beat the Beeston centre midfield with a large dollop of cheek to set up a goal attempt.

Team: Ed Holt (GK), Jim Phipps, Andy Dale (c), Tom Wightman, James Ruse, Gary Paterson, Max Heaphy, Tom Bradshaw, Aidan Walker, Chris Rowlands, Simon Ellison, Simon Sidhu, Ally Rose

Mens 5th XI 4-0 Leicester 4th XI

Goals: Sam Bigley, Steve Morris, Rob Cary, Tom Dysko 

The game started with Northampton immediately on the attack down the right hand side. Sam Bigley, Tom and Joe were linking up well and put the Leicester defence under pressure. Rob Cary  playing as a target man was putting himself about with some robust forward play -and managing to get into a verbal battle with the Leicester captain. This was to prove a fore-taste of things to come in the second half. Northampton won a series of penalty corners against a rather one-dimensional Leicester team. Eventually the pressure told and Rob Cary fired the 5s into the lead with a well taken shot into the corner. 

Mens 6thXI 1-1 Coventry & North Warwicks 4th XI

Goal Scorers: Chris Easton

“Dennis! There's some lovely filth down here!” was the cry as we arrived at the pitch. In freezing temperatures. It was going to be a tough game with the top of table team. They had already dug in and were shouting challenges over the ramparts.

Father smells like Elderberries

The game was explosive to start with both sides showing their anxiety of putting in a good performance.

Coventryand North Warwicks pressed a seething attack down our left side and managed to force an overlap. Between Paul “Lancelot” Crawford slipping and Karl “Dead Collector” Flowers missing his tackle the opposition managed to put in the opening goal.

With great determination the Fighting Sixes started building with great passing hockey. Dermot “Black Knight” Cassidy and Karl “Mr. Praline” McGregor acting as defensive midfielders helped distribute the ball well. Cassidy after being badly mauled was told he had no arms, to which he replied: “It’s only a flesh wound.”

The F6s then decided to use the holy hand grenade. Owen “Deadly Dirk” Jones linked up well with Will “Arthur Name” Gamble on counterstrike, who rapidly passed the ball to Ross “Harry the Hagler” McLean. Ross sent the ball by aerial to Luke “Brian” Pibworth. Luke crossed it to Chris “Herbert Anchovy” Easton who put it away to equalize.

After half time the game got frenzied, both sides not knowing the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow started playing some great hockey. Ross peppered one of the opposition only to have George “Urban Spaceman” Roberts give the player the nickname “The Knight of Ni.”

Ross then got given a green card and when asked, the umpire was heard saying: “He is not the messiah- he is a very naughty boy!” Coventry and North Warwicks demanded a stoning, but after ascertaining that there were women in the crowd (with false beards) it was called off.

Sam “Sir Bors” Russell had some outstanding runs in the second half, but just couldn’t seem to link up with Nigel “Dennis” Riches and Rob “Mr. Creosote” Tee, who later couldn’t manage the wafer thin after- dinner-mint.

Rob “Papadopoulous” O’Donnell made some brilliant tackles to dispossess their strikers on attack and kept the opposition from troubling the keeper. O’Donnell, master in the art of camouflage, knew the first lesson of subterfuge was not to stand up when asked to.

The draw, whilst it didn’t merit full points, did prove that this F6 side is truly capable of being promoted. After being described as an ex-parrot before season, we proved that we were not howling for the fjords…

Teas:    Minestrone soup for starters; Beans, Jacket Potato and Sausages

MOM:   Rob O’Donnell (Excellent defensive play)

DOD:     Ross McLean (Missed penalty flick and green card)

Squad: Dermot Cassidy(c); Paul Crawford (GK); Karl Flowers; Rob O’Donnell; George Roberts; Karl McGregor; Owen Jones; Luke Pibworth; Sam Russell; Will Gamble; Chris Easton; Ross McLean; Rob Tee and Nigel Riches.

NorthamptonBadgers 3-2 Welford Badgers

The first half was a close fought affair as two teams went in at half time goalless.  In the second half Northampton's Jacob Pryce took the lead, but they couldn't hold it as Welford replied minutes later.  Northampton new boy Jamie regained the lead with a superb debut goal and shortly after Lee Thompson doubled the difference.  Welford came back late on but it wasn't enough, final score: Northampton 3 - Welford 2.

Olton & West Warwick U18 4-2 Girls U18

All the U18 girls and the hung over Umpire met on a bright and sunny day at Sixfields McDonalds for a healthy breakfast such as, celery rolls and carrot sticks. If only, it was cold and dull and our breakfasts weren’t really that healthy, bacon rolls and hash browns.  We set off at 9.15 in plenty of time in case events from last week reoccurred. However, we all got to the pitch with plenty of time till the match actually allowing us to get ready and to warm up. After a random argument about who should take the warm up, we finally got on with it! We were told our positions and what we were expected to do. All of us were ready and pumped to face the team that disappointing beat us last week.

Then the game begins, the whistle goes and the ball is passed.  With some amazing passes between the speedy Emily Kilner and the not so speedy Laura Wychgel, the ball is straight in Olton’s D and short corner was won. With a very unconfident injector and a hell of the hitter at the top of the D, the ball went to Emily, who gave it straight back to the injector who swiped and missed, FAIL!

The ball then went back and forth, attack was the only way Saints knew and it was starting to pay off. Another short this time it was going to work, it had to work and ... IT DID WORK. With an absolute beauty of an injection to Ellie Bleech, she hammered the ball straight to  back post heading straight for goal, until the defender got in the way and deflected it in the goal!!! The pitch went silent and then suddenly a massive cheer coming from the Saints side, 1-0 up and getting more confident. The game went from end to end with great defending from both sides, however just 5 minutes before halftime Olton managed to get a corner back and tried to do what we attempted, passing back to injector, but they were more successful than us and got one back, 1-1! With more shots on goal by saints but none managing to get pass their goalie, the whistle went for half time.

With hopes high and feeling optimistic, we had an encouraging talk from our coach Athiq Thamby and we were ready for the second half.

The second half than began with Saints pressuring Olton again, with some first class tackles from Lottie Tulley, Steph Brennan and Ella Forsyth. This was not enough to prevent the ball from going into the back of our goal, however this did not make us doubt ourselves as moments after their 2nd goal, Rosie Barnes dribbled the ball with her silky skills into the D with determination in her eyes but as she couldn’t get pass her defender she gave a cracking ball to Emily Kilner who just pelted the ball to back corner giving their goalie no chance in stopping it, making it 2-2. Olton by now were pressing our goal, they broke away, which our speedy players couldn’t even prevent but luckily we have our goalie on pitch, Emma Brennan who made some awesome saves that not even Beth Storry could have done. Georgia Annikythen cleared the ball up to Lottie who did an amazing pass to Hannah Bullimore on the other side of pitch who was sprinting off the pitch in order to be subbed off, but that plan went out the window as Hannah picked up the ball clearly getting round her player with ease running into the D passing the ball to Rosie who had a shot on goal but unfortunate not to score.  More pressure from Olton resulted in two more goals but the team kept battling but it wasn’t our day.

This score did not reflect the game as the saints were constantly attacking with Olton only attacking in short periods but finishing was the difference on the day. Everyone tried their hardest from the first and last whistle.

Man of the match – Laura Whchgel

The future is bright!

Squad: Emma Brennan (GK), Ella Forsyth, Georgia Anniky, Steph Brennan (c), Lottie Tully, Laura Whchgel, Emily Kilner, Ellie Bleech, Sophie Cattell, Hannah Bullimore, Mizzy Haines and Rosie Barnes