Mens 2nd XI 5-0 Olton & West Warwick 2nd XI

Goals: Dan Rose (2), James Knibb (2), Liam Cassidy

 

With Saints going into the key period of the season, they knew 3 points was vital in this battle between 2 of the league's relegation candidates. Due to 1st team call ups and unavailability, Saints were lacking a few players, so up stepped James Miller and Dan Rose from the 3s to showcase their talents.

Rose was the first to make an impression as he finished off a swift Saints counter attack with a simple back post tap in. Saints continued to dominate the first half and a fine defensive performance from the team allowed them to continously hit Olton on the break. This fine work was duly rewarded with another goal just before half-time, Liam Cassidy the scorer.

The half-time team talk was all about keeping shape, soaking up the expected early pressure from Olton and getting the all important third goal to kill off the game.

For once, the team listened to the team-talk and did exactly as requested! The defensive 5 held firm with Matt Wilde in particular doing well in the unfamiliar defensive midfield role. This allowed the attacking five the licence to roam, with Cassidy and Gavin Markham leading the way. Midway through the second half the all important third goal came courtesty of a James Knibb drag flick off a penalty corner. Saints then finished off an impressive team performance with further goals from Dan Rose (another close range tap in) and James Knibb.

 

MOTM: 3 way tie between: Matt Wilde, Liam Cassidy, Gavin Markham
DOTD: Martyn Cory - for leaving the game early to watch the Rugby!

Squad: Sam Biddle (GK), James Miller, Simon Stringer, Pete Riches, Matt Wilde, Matt Gausden (c), Liam Cassidy, Gavin Markham, Athiq Thamby, Martyn Cory, Dan Rose, James Knibb.  

 

Mens 5thXI 5-1 West Bridgford

 

Scorers: Tom Dysko (3), Rob Cary, Rob Tee

 

 

Saints travelled to West Bridgford, for the second time in as many weeks, looking to redeem themselves from the disappointing display last week. Saints started the match well. The desire and drive of early season returned and from the outset Saints were piling the pressure onto the West Bridgford defence. With Bridgford pressed into their half, Callum Scott-Collins picked up a loose ball at the halfway line and made a strong driving run towards the D. West Bridgford defenders seemed to be content to dive aimlessly towards Callum, giving him an easy task to find his way into the D, he then slipped a neat, accurate pass through to birthday boy Tom Dysko, who put the ball cleanly into the goal.

 

Saints continued in this manner, with some strong pacy attacks down the right had side – courtesy of Tom Dysko and Gareth Voss. Rob Cary had several chances to increase the score, but was denied by the hard working Bridgford keeper. Tom Dysko picked up one of the keepers many clearances from Rob’s shots to put the goal tally up to 2.

 

As the half wore on Saints started to lose a bit of momentum allowing Bridgford to attack, however they soaked up this pressure well and hit back on the counter attack allowing Rob Cary to score.

 

 

The second half started and it didn’t take long for Tom Dysko to find space in the D to slot home another classy flick into the goal to secure his hat-trick.

 

Soon after this the game became more notable for the number of people eating astro-turf than the actual hockey. Firstly Gareth Voss charged in low (and a little late) to pick up a loose ball, up-ending Bridgford’s experienced centre midfielder. Then in the Saints D, Callum Scott-Collins was felled by two of Bridford’s forwards  - he scored high artistic impression points for his swan dive as he fell, and unfortunately for Callum, he landed on top of one of the forwards, getting a poke in the ribs from his stick. Lastly Scott Bashford came charging out to collect the ball, but collected Bridgford’s player instead, knocking him flat on his face causing the unfortunate player to lose the crown from one of his teeth. This secured Bridford a flick, which they converted well.

 

Saints continued to keep some pressure on and even decided to give the keeper a good work out having 5 or 6 shots in sequence all directly at the keeper. After several misses off the back of Gareth Voss crosses (most notably Jon Keep hitting the ball straight at the keepers feet, before clumsily kicking the ball back to the keeper) he managed to find Rob Tee who swept the ball through the legs of the fully stretched Bridgford keeper and finished the scoring for Saints.

 

MOTM: Birthday boy Tom Dysko – Hat trick, and MOM – not a bad birthday really

DOTD: Scott Bashford – for taking out the oppositions teeth!

 

 

Team: Scott Bashford, Callum Scott-Collins, Steve Morris, Grant Stevens, Gareth Voss, Jon Keep, Dave Henry, Chris Rowlands, Tom Dysko, Ally Rose, Rob Cary, Rob Tee

 

 

Ladies 3rd XI 1-6 Daventry

Goal Scorer: Annie Holt

We were expecting a tough match against these guys, and you know it’s never a good start when we can’t even match our socks ‘cough cough’ Jane Ogden!

They had a lot of experience and strength which definitely showed as we were 1 down in the first minute. After the shaky start, we regained composure and were looking stronger up front with some great runs from Emily Kilner and Anya. Unfortunately we could not convert them into goals and quickly found ourselves conceding 2 more goals from a couple of quick breaks. We kept fighting and won ourselves a short corner Annie shot from the top of the D and scored a great goal. The score was now at now 3-1, which definitely lifted our hopes as we were starting to believe we could go and get a few more goals. The first half ended with us pressing them very high so the half time break didn’t really suit us.

We were ready for second half and were pressing their defence straight away, unfortunately, like the first half they were quicker on the break and ended up scoring 3 more goals. However we were fighting until the end and the score definitely did not reflect the game!

Unlucky girls, hopefully luck will be with us next week!

 

 

Badgers 4-3 Daventry Badgers

Goal Scorers: Anthony Condon, Lee Thompson (2), Greg Summers

 

Northampton dominated the first half with Anthony Condon opening the scoring early on.  Lee Thompson doubled the lead 20 minutes in, before taking his second shortly after.

Daventry made a come back in the second half pulling a goal back early on, which was to be followed by 2 more soon after. The two teams battled through the wind desperate for a breakthrough but in the end it was a superb solo run from Northampton's Greg Summers which ended Daventry's hopes of home victory.