Match Reports from 24th & 25th March
Men’s 1st XI 13-1 South Notts
Goals: Ben Scott (5), Gareth Parker (3), Joe Colantonio, Christian Howard, Tom Lewington, Joe Kopka, Alex Press
Saints hosted bottom of the table South Notts in their last fixture of the season.
The home side made the breakthrough when Joe Kopka won Saints their first short corner and Ben Scott drag flicked home. The second goal was exactly the same, Scott doubling Saints’ tally finding the same corner of the goal. The flood gates were now open and Saints continued to press and the goals flowed. Gareth Parker scrambled the ball home after a mistake by a defender and then grabbed his second by stealing a goal from Alex Press on the line.
Grant Carlin and Steve Williams continued to terrorise the South Notts defence to win another short corner. This time is was Kopka’s name on the score sheet as he deflected in a Ben Scott pass. 5-0 and Saints were not finished. Scott came off the bench after a five minute break to play in attack for the rest of the game. Great work by Christian Howard led to Scott sealing his hat trick at the back post and two assists in two minutes by Joe Colantonio led to Scott getting his 4thand 5thgoals. 8-0 at half time.
Saints did start the second half a little sluggishly but soon found the net again as Tom Lewington scored his first goal from Saints from a short corner. Parker then grabbed his hat trick scoring from close range after good work by Stephan Williams. Unfortunately Saints did let their concentration slip and Notts won their only short which was converted by their captain. Saints continued to score though and next it was the turn of Christian Howard firing into the near corner from the top of the D. Joe Colantonio scored next firing into the opposite corner after some good footwork and Alex Press followed up with a goal himself from close range.
A 13-1 victory to end the season off. Saints finished 7thwith a 30 point tally, their best in 4 years.
The Men’s 1s in goalscoring mode!
Ladies 3rdXI 4-0 Kettering 3rdXI
Goals: Steph Brennan, Christie Walsh, Courtney Thorpe, Natalia Raca
With a win meaning promotion, 3s dominated from the start against Kettering. With some excellent supportive play from Jane Ogden, Jules Herring, Winnie Jones, Stephanie Brennan, Georgia Anniky and Annie Toman, who made up the back 5, resulted in spending virtually the whole first half playing in the attacking half. A great strike from Stephanie Brennan at the top of the D resulted in an early lead, quickly increased by Christie Walsh scoring before half time.
In the second half, the ladies 3s continued as we left off at half time with a well-structured attack and Emma Brennan not having much to do in goal! With continued attacks creating plenty of chance to score, Courtney Thorpe and Natalia Raca brought the score up to 4-0, resulting in promotion after a brilliant season from the Ladies 3rd team squad!
Mens WFF 6th XI 5-2 Warwick 4th XI (Away)
Goal Scorers: Lloyd Atkinson (3), Tony Brennan and Richard Smith
It was to be the clash for who gets promoted and who doesn’t. The World Famous Fighting Sixes (WFF6s) needed 3 points to be promoted as champions. It was guts or glory.
The game started off with a lot of energy and the WFF6s looked very dominant, a break in the attack saw a great counter by Warwick who put in the opening score with a deft touch in by Tony Brennan. The WFF6s came back resilient with 2 quick goals by Lloyd Atkinson, one from an excellent drive by Phil Knight.
A substitution into a striking position by the captain – himself – saw a deft touch in by the capatin to put the WFF6s into a very commanding position. After the break, the Home team managed to make it 2 with an excellent piece of interplay around the D.
The 2 remaining goals by Lloyd and Richard sealed the result. Jubilation by the WFF6s who secure their promotion, as champions, into Central League South East 1 then proceeded and celebrations could be heard in the wee hours of the morning
MOM: The whole team for an outstanding season
DOD: Robert Mugabe
Squad: Tony Brennan(c); Adam Powell (GK); Karl Flowers; Karl MacGregor; Darren Thorpe; Pete Malpass; Phil Knight; Lloyd Atkinson; Ryan James; Phil Adams; Dermot Cassidy; Aidan Walker; and Richard Smith
University of Durham 1st XI 6 – 0 Ladies 1st XI
Once upon a time there was a team who attempted to play hockey. Sometimes they managed it, one of which being today! A 6:30am leave didn’t bother saints, everyone was ready for a fun minibus journey. Reaching Durham with a short stop for some socks as Georgia Linnell and Chloe Cozens forget theres! The game started and Saints pushed hard for a long period of time in the first half as Durham took possession in the saints 23. Some awesome defending occurred, although eventually a short corner was won. Unfortunately Emma Pinny got a deflection on the shot as she put herself in the way of the initial strike resulting in a goal. But saints didn’t let their heads drop with some good passing between each other allowing them to rattle the Durham keeper as the whistle blew for half time.
Saints were well up for the hard battle that was about to commence. With a lovely cross from Cozens, after beating 2 of the Durham player’s, Pinny had a shot on goal which was well saved by the keeper. Durham weren’t going to give it away easily; evident by the left post deflection from a short corner after 3 consecutive fabulous saves from Rebecca Howitt. Saints now had possession and weren’t going to mess around, Amie Hone carried the ball taking on several players and making space to pass to Ellie Bleech, who with very little space managed to get a shot off which was placed just wide of the right post. Saints became tired and Durham began to take advantage of this, but not without Amy Tuffs, today’s man of the match, putting up a strong fight. As they overloaded the ‘D’, there were just too many to mark and the ball was played around for Durham’s 3rd goal. Saints were still not giving up on this game, ‘we hadn’t travelled over 400 miles for nothing’, making it difficult for Durham as they continued to make substitutions. There were 2 goals scored in a short space of time for Durham due to not having the players to make continuous changes. With 5 minutes to go we were playing for enjoyment and were willing to give 110%, and as everyone gave all they had, Durham scored their final goal of the game, resulting in a 6-0 lose, but all was not lost because we had a great journey home with lots of sleepy players all getting very stiff!
Squad: Rebecca Howitt, Amie Hone, Caroline Avery, Georgia Linnell, Sally Trappitt-Jones, Ferne Sanders, Emma Pinny, Amy Tuffs, Lottie Tulley, Chloe Cozens , Ellie Bleech, Sally Adlen
Manager: Carole Bleech
Coach: Colyn Biddle
Ladies 3rd XI 5 – 1 Wellingborough 3rd XI
Thorpe (3), Natalia, Thomas
After a great team effort and win from Saturday’s match, the ladies threes had high spirits and combined with the sunny weather were well up for another victory. The whole team played extremely well with great movement between the defence and midfield from Winnie and Emma (goal keeper). The midfield and forwards worked well together, with some great balls into the attacking half from Christine and Jules. A whole team effort secured a well earned 5-1 win, with goals from Natalia (1), Laura Thomas (1) and a hatrick from Courtney Thorpe. The ladies three’s should be extremely proud of their efforts on and off the pitch this season, with great Captain Leadership from Stephanie Brennan, and a dedicated team. They thoroughly deserve their promotion.
Men’s 2ndXI 4-5 Burton 2ndXI
Goals: Tom Wightman (2), Max Heaphy, Dan Rose
Spring was here on a nice sunny day, which only meant this was the last game of a very hard season for the Men’s 2ndXI. Facing a late pushback of 4pm the ‘boys’ left with high spirits even though they have already been relegated.
Due to the Matt ‘Captain Sick Note’ Gausden being injured to a footballing injury, the mantel was passed onto Dan ‘Armband’ Whittaker, who was revelling in his new power.
The trip up was scenic to say the least, we clearly enjoyed the sunshine and the countryside, however this did lead us to having about 30 minutes to get kitted up and warm up before the game.
The game finally started and it was slow start by both teams, but the score line suddenly changed as the saints’ forwards won a short corner, and it was up to Tom Wightman to slot his drag flick into the side netting, 1-0 saints. The pace suddenly changed into saints favour and this lead was doubled after some stunning stick skills by Max Heaphy to slot the ball into the goal. The pressure was applied all through the first half, but against the run of play, Burton scored a goal to bring them back into contention 2-1 to saints. Half time
2ndhalf started and the saints syndrome struck, Burton scored a goal very quickly into the start of the second half, however some quick thinking from Scott Mahoney and Dan Rose led to Rose scoring a nice half volley past the keeper, saints 3-2 up and back in the driving seat, but this wasn’t the case as, Ed Holt decided to come out of his goal and deny a goal scoring opportunity by fouling and this resulted in a flick against him. Saints shot themselves on the foot again scores 3-3!
‘Squeaky Bum Time’ soon approached as saints yet again went ahead with another slick short corner routine, still debatable who got the last touch (Wightman or Heaphy). 4-3 with only 10 mins to go, inexperience showed as saints started getting into trouble with the umpires and this resulted in a short corner which Burton dispatched.
4-4 with 5 mins to go, saints would have settled for a point but newly appointed captain Whittaker saw yellow for a bad tackle and with saints down to 10 just crumbled under the pressure and gave away a short corner yet again…..score line 5-4 to Burton.
With the average age of 18, the Saints boys showed real grit, and this was a very promising performance for next season as they will look to get back into this league.
Mom – Tom Wightman for his supreme finish in the short corner and some monster aerials.
Special note goes to Adam Croutear with yet another commanding position at the back.
Dod – Ed Holt, too some task beating James Knibb and Max Heaphy to this award. He gave the Flick.
The Badgers (in white) in action against Rugby
Men’s 3rd XI 8 – 2 Belper 3rd XI
Goals: Scott-Collins (3), Smith (2), Whitfield, Pibworth, Bigley
One last chance for Saints to try and play hockey, but it was the visitors who took up the challenge, scoring from an angle to take the lead. This was short lived as Saints drew level thanks to the magic of Scott-collins. He again, along with Bigley and Smith, added to the tally leaving Saints comfortably leading at the break.
The second half brought more joy for Saints, and after 2 failed attempts to round the keeper Scott-Collins wrapped up the hatrick, while trying to destroy the net at the same time. Noble’s aerials caused constant problems for the defenders, and it wasn’t long before Smith scored his second, after volleying the ball into the bottom corner. Pibworth added a seventh after wrong footing the keeper, and it was defender Whitfield who needed no second invitation to crash the ball home for the eighth. Belper did score a second, but this did little to dampen the satisfied, if not sweltering Saints.
Squad: Phil Preen (gk), Andy Dale, Ian Mcilwaine, Luke Pibworth, Sam Bigley , Sam Mitchell, Jason Hillier, Evan Morris, Hugo Day,Jon Noble, Richard, Andy Smith, Tom Scott-Collins, Danny Whitfield
Men’s 5th XI 0 – 2 Beeston 5th XI
After the surprise arrival of Mike Derbyshire (as there had been no communication from him to David), Northampton made a bright start and were playing on the front foot, however conceded a sloppy goal from a defensive point of view after two attempts to clear the ball had just given possession back to Beeston inside the 25. Although the goal was well taken, it was poor defensive work from Northampton that gifted the goal and gave themselves an uphill struggle to win the match.
Despite this Northampton came back strong and forced a few penalty corners, the first of which was given away by a nonchalant trip on Gareth Voss inside the “D”. The game was fairly even until half time, changing after the break with Northampton having slightly more of the play. This continued until Beeston received a yellow card giving Northampton a man advantage for 10 minutes. In this time they proceeded to create chances, best of which was created by Matt who drove into the “D” and flashed a shot across goal beating the keeper but hitting the far post. This was where Gareth was arriving but he arrived at exactly the wrong time; too early to touch it in but too late to finish after it came off the post.
The game continued to be balanced after Beeston were back to their full compliment with both teams enjoying a fair amount of the possession. Both teams had attacks and the game was end to end. During a Beeston attack Dysko tracked back from right midfield and made a clumsy challenge through a player, bundling him over inside the “25” and conceding a penalty corner from which Beeston slotted home their second goal. Northampton went back on the offensive; however Beeston put men behind the ball and defended solidly, repelling Northampton time and time again.
Squad: Scott Bashford (gk), David Henry (c), Steve Morns, Adam Shepherd, Rob Cary, Matt Kerr, Gareth Voss, Mike Derbyshire, Alex Jeffery, Jeremy Wan, Harry Stobart, Tom Dysko, Ed Arnold
Rugby & East Warwick Masters 0-4 Northampton Saints Masters
Goals: Dave Kelly, Jon Noble (2), Max Darby
The Saints welcomed yet another new cap Trev Fidler to the fold for a debut against a well organised Rugby side. The Saints setlled very quickly into a neat passing game and really took control of the game from the outset, with Ian McIlwaine and Nigel Down controlling the game from the middle of the park. It was no surprise whenh the saints took the lead when a great goal bound effort from John Noble was touched over the line by Dave Kelly. About 10 minutes later Jon Noble doubled the lead with a well worked short corner routinne. The saints continued to play a fluid game full of the passing and movement usually associated with the great brazillian football sides.
At half time it was a case of carry on as normal – which the Saints did – soon to be rewarded with a screamer of a goal again by the evergreen Noble. After taking the 3- 0 lead and with tiring legs, Rugby applied more pressure as Saints resorted more to longer more speculative balls. The back five maintained their composure and Biddle made a couple of important saves to ensure the sought after clean sheet was maintained. The second half continued with the Rugby keeper making numerous great saves aided by some extremely comical finishing (the perpetrators will remain nameless but one was on debut) – with one final goal coming on the final whistle – a flowing move finished with great aplomb by Max Darby.
A great game with an excellent team performance by the Saints
Squad: Biddle, Phipps, Hillier, Tebbutt, Darbyshire, Daverson, Kelly, Down, McIlwaine, Fidler, Darby R, Darby M, Noble.