aints Ladies followed up their victory against Kettering last week to continue their good form with a convincing display against Towcester. The first half was keenly contested with Sue Willers in the Towcester goal the busier of the two keepers. Saints opened the scoring 5 minutes before half time - Sally Cory on target from a short corner.

Saints moved up a gear in the second half with some excellent play in the midfield from Jo Smith and good work by the forwards, putting the Towcester defence under great pressure. Anita Bazini increased Saints lead and Lucy-Ann Chacksfield added a third from a short corner. Towcester pulled a goal back but overall Saints looked sound defensively, Helen Turner enjoying a good match. The best goal of the game was set up by Jo Smith, firing the ball to the far post for Cory to sweep home.

Next week Saints are in league action at home against Nottingham Highfields.

aints got of to the worst possible start to their Coaching Solutions Midlands Division 1 campaign going down by 4 goals to 1 away to a strong Nottingham University side. Saints look well organised and solid in defence, but despite this concided 4 well taken Penality corner goals to leave them selves a hard job, saints battled well and saw there efforts pay off when Mark Warsop struck home to give the saints a glimmer of hope.

Saints will now entertain recently relegate side Khalsa on Saturday, and will hope to continue their good cup form on Sunday when they play host to Broxbourne in Round 2 of the HA Cup.

aints started the season with a game against their biggest rivals for league victory and promotion, Northampton Town. With several new players and a change to last year's formation this was the 2nd XI's first opportunity to test their game plan against an opposition side. Great play from Claire Elliott and Nicky Hughes in the first half created several scoring opportunities down the right hand side of the pitch which Saints were unfortunate not to capitalise on. Some awesome hockey from Winnie and Kate Barnetson held the defence and Saints were unlucky to be one goal down at half time.

Saints continued to outplay the opposition in the second half with the game plan coming together and an exhausted opposition side making mistakes. Emma Grannell had a short corner disallowed and Saints were unlucky not to score in a match they had dominated.

he 2nd XI did not have a good first match. Chesterfield were allowed to play with space and time, and with Saints being a man down, got off to a flyer. Saints played good hockey in long patches frustrating Chesterfield and managed to get goals from Trevor Fidler and Richard Griffiths.

patchy performance from Saints saw them fall behind twice to a side they had expected to beat comfortably. First half ended 1-1 after a late goal from Jon Keep in his first league match for Saints, and despite periods of dominating the game Saints were to fall behind again due simply to lapses of concentration in midfield and defence. The equaliser came after Saints caught Nottingham on the counter-attack, Daniel Tiffany excelling as the lone front man beating defence and goalkeeper to set up Pat Marter with a simple push into an open goal.