Match Reports from 29th September
Ladies 1st XI 1-4 Harborne
Goals: LA Chacksfield
Saints started well after a long drive against a well drilled Harbourne, with some great defending from Georgia Linnell and Caroline Hossack. However Harbourne put up a strong attack, and quickly scored two goals despite Saints’ efforts. Great midfield work from Caz McCabe and Lottie Tulley meant that Saints continued to push forwards and pressure Harbourne’s defence. This continued in the second half, allowing LA Chacksfield to score great drag flick from a short corner, putting the score to 2-1 to Harbourne. Saints kept up the pressure against the home side but despite great saves from Claire Leech, Harbourne managed to score two more goals, putting the score to 4-1.
Despite the loss, both the team and individuals can take away many positives from the match and continue to improve through the season ahead.
Men’s 2nd XI 5-2 Khalsa 2nd XI
Goals: Ian Tipples (2), Dan Rose, Greg Summers, Sam Mitchell
Blood, sweat and cheers!
Northampton got off to a winning start in their first league game away to Khalsa.
Pre-match preparations weren’t ideal with 1 car de-touring to drag Stephan Williams out of his bed and not turning up till bang on push back. Fortunately the 11 men already on the pitch were more than up for the challenge. Saints pressed from the off and took and almost immediate grasp of the game as they played the ball around, kept possession and attacked at pace. They took a deserved lead early on as Ian Tipples ghosted in at the back post to tap the ball in. Minutes later they doubled their lead as Dan Rose executed from close range. The excitement of a 2 goal lead clearly got too much for some as Matt Gausden did his best Klinsman dive! The sniper was nowhere to be seen! 
With Saints dominating it looked like nothing could go wrong for Saints. However Ben Northedge had other ideas as he decided to pick a fight with an oppositions stick. Needless to say the stick won and left him needing a couple of stitches to the head. This didn’t dampen Saints spirits as they scored a third and quite probably the best goal of the game as Tipples outrageously reverse swept the ball into the top corner of the goal. Khalsa then pulled one back completely against the run of play from a penalty corner. But not to be out-done, Northampton made it 4 before half-time as Greg Summers scored on his 2nd team league debut. Half-time 4-1.
Half-time team talk consisted of keeping cool heads (mainly aimed at Guy Roberts who still had steam coming out of his ears and nose after some first-half decisions going against him).
The second half saw a resurgent Khalsa as they enjoyed much more possession and began to cause Saints problems, although the back-line held firm with defender Lewis Ward and keeper Robin Sawyer impressing in particular. Khalsa pulled another goal back midway through the second half through a deflected penalty corner. Although not to be out-done, Saints regained their 3 goal lead through a penalty corner themselves, with Sam Mitchell deflecting the ball in at the far post.
The game ended and Lewis Ward lead the team high-fives, whilst Tipples quickly left the field to get some much needed sympathy from his girlfriend for his grazed hand. A promising start to the league for Saints, who look to continue their form when they host Nottingham University at Moulton on Saturday.
MOTM: Robin Sawyer
DOTD: Stephan Williams, just for being himself!
Squad: Robin Sawyer (GK), Guy Roberts, Lewis Ward, Pete Riches, Matt Gausden, Chris Reid, Ben Northedge, Danny Whitfield, Dan Whittaker (c), Alex Blunt, Stephan Williams, Ian Tipples, Dan Rose, Greg Summers, Sam Mitchell
Men’s 3rd XI 1-2 Boots 3rd XI
Goals: Pibworth
Saints started the season with an indifferent performance, facing Boots, the only team Saints beat both home and away last year. Saints dominated the opening with plenty of possession around the park. The only problem was there were no clear cut chances. As the half went on a chance attack by Boots brought a slightly fortunate goal. Boots almost doubled the lead, with a frantic goal line clearance by Powel, keeping Saints within touching distance. Saints started to lose concentration and a few tempers were frayed. However with 15 minutes remaining Pibworth collected the rebound from his own shot, to round the keeper and score from the angle. At 1-1 Saints looked to go for the win, but almost immediately Boots took the lead again. Despite the final few minutes of pressure, and a couple of short corners, Boots held on for the win.
Men’s 4thXI 7-0 Beeston 5thXI
Goals: Mike Darbyshire (2), Lloyd Atkinson (2), Luke Howard, Tom Dysko, Chris Godman
The 4s started their league campaign with a comfortable victory over Beeston. It was a strong Northampton side with the addition of a number of key players this week, including Mike Darbyshire, Richard Say, Luke Howard and a special appearance from Lloyd Atkinson. Matt Candler was also making his debut appearance for the 4s at left back. The game started with Northampton looking very strong down the middle and were looking to use the pace of Ant Condon and Chris Godman on the wings as much as possible. Lloyd and Steve Morris were controlling things in the middle of the field and with some persistent pressure on the Beeston D Saints were rewarded with a short corner strike from Mike Darbyshire to open the scoring. Beeston never really threatened and Saints full backs, Richard Say and Matt Candler were able to push on and link up with the attack. Saints were now playing some very fluid passing hockey and further goals came from Lloyd Atkinson (2) and Mike Darbyshire. Half time: 4-0. The second half saw Saints continuing their pressure down the flanks and won a series of short corners, Beeston’s goalkeeper heroically kept out a number of shots but was powerless to stop Luke Howard, Tom Dysko and Chris Godman from adding to the scoring.
Man of the match: Lloyd Atkinson
DOTD: Mike Darbyshire ( Green card for rush of blood)
Squad: Scott Bashford (GK) Jim Phipps, Mike Darbyshire, Matt Candler, Richard Say, David Henry (c) Rob Cary, teve Morris, Lloyd Atkinson, Tom Dysko, Chris Godman, Luke Howard, Ant Condon.
Ladies 4thXI 2-0 Rushden and Higham
Goals: Jackie Croxford (2)
Saints got their season off to an excellent start in their first league match of the season. They dominated the first half, spreading the ball around with confidence, and scoring a brace of goals through forward, Jackie Croxford. While the first goal should conceivably have been saved by the Rushden Goalkeeper, the second was a well taken shot, which came after a period of persistent pressure by the Saints. Orchestrating the action was Trudy Royer, who seemed to be everywhere at once, and thoroughly deserved her ‘Player of the Match’ award. A competent Rusden and Higham side made life more difficult in the second half but could not over turn the deficit and the game finished 2-0 to the home team. This strong performance should give Saints the confidence on which they can feed for the next match.
Men’s 5thXI 1-2 Rugby & East Warwick 5thXI
Goals: Ed Arnold
Saints began their opening league match of the season following several defeats in the pre-season friendlies. The game began strongly with some great play from Saints new look midfield- with Gareth ‘love-you long time’ Voss returning to the side, and George Rockell and Nick Beattie making their club debuts.
Saints built well from defence, strengthened by the ‘old guard’ of Karl McGregor, Joe Cliffe, John Bennett and James Ruse. With Ali ‘Ouch!’ Townsend adding a touch of youth to the back line, Saints worked into several decent attacking positions and tested the opposition goalkeeper on a number of occasions. Saints were unlucky when a Rugby counter led to a short corner, which the opposition dispatched, taking the score to 1-0 to Rugby.
The rest of the first half saw Saints maintaining a good level of possession and making the opposition work hard. George Rockell decided to take the fight to them, starting with an arial into an opposition players cheekbone, and Ali ‘Ouch!’ Townsend tried to test the new own goal rule with a chest-height shot from outside the D which was, for some reason, deemed dangerous…
The second half began with great work down the wings from Elliot ‘Wild-man’ Wilde and Ricard Price taking advantage of their pace against a slow rugby defence. Whilst Saints looked much stronger than they had in the first half, another counter led to another rugby short corner- one which they dispatched again in exactly the same manner as the first- only at a quarter of the pace. The shot was nearly saved on the line by John ‘maybe I’ll wear my glasses in future’ Bennett but managed to trickle in for 2-0 to Rugby.
Jake Bennett in goal kept Saints in the game in the following few minutes with a selection of athletic and impressive saves, no doubt aided by his shiny clean kit blinding the opposition attackers with glare. Some good teamwork in midfield helped Saints get the momentum back, with Joe ‘cool, calm and collected’ Cliffe, Gareth ‘Long-time’ Voss and George ‘Rocky’ Rockell pairing up to mask any mistake the other made, and getting emotional whilst doing so. With 5 minutes to go, a Saints attack from the right saw Nick ‘vertical reverse arial’ Beattie and Krish ‘has anyone got any spare shorts’ Jasinarachchi link well at the edge of the D and get the ball to George Rockell, who found Ed Arnold at the back post to slot the ball home.
Given another 5 minutes of play the result may well have been different, but the final whistle brought a halt to Saints onslaught and gave Rugby the victory at 2-1.
MOM: Jake Bennett for some fine goalkeeping, and for his impeccable appearance.
DOD: Krish Jasinarachchi for turning up without his shorts…
Tea: Sausage, Chips, Beans, Baguettes and Sausage Rolls
Attendance: One
.
Loughborough 4th XI 2-0 Men’s 6th XI
A tough introduction to league hockey for the 6’s with the team playing their first league fixture since last years promotion and for four players the game also marked their league debut. In an even first half the 6’s had the slightly better chances but failed to convert any of their short corners and the home side also carved out a couple of half chances. The half time score of 0-0 was a fair reflection of how close the game was with neither side able to dominate for any length of time.
The second half started in a similar fashion with the 6’s carving out a number of half chances however poor finishing and a corner routine that failed to spark came back to haunt the team when Loughborough secured their first corner and duly converted after a switch back to the injector that was dispatched into the roof of the net. Saints pressed for an equaliser but were caught out when the ball broke loose to an opposition forward and the home side scored their second goal. Despite creating further chances the opposition goalie was rarely troubled so it is off to the shooting range for the team ahead of the next fixture.
Man of the Match Anthony Walder for some solid defense
DotD Originally this was heading to our very own Harry Potter Lee who was unavailable attending a magic show however at half time Rob O’Donnel managed to conjure up a bit of magic by heading off to start the half without a stick, he then gave the illusion that he knew more than the umpire and got a good telling off and so earned the DotD award.Now thats magic.
Men’s 7th XI 0-1 Players 4s
Men’s 7s travelled up to Nottingham for their first ever league match. The match was a very closely fought battle and the first half was hotly contested with play going between both ends, but neither team able to put a clean finish. Saints had several opportunities to break the deadlock – Connor Wright from the left side of the pitch sent several great crosses across the D that went begging for that elusive finishing touch. Sooraj Premsagar and Tim Warburton were linking up strongly on the right, but were denied the finish. Defensively the side was working well with Adam Morgan and Joe Wightman keeping cool heads when the pressure was on to get the defence well organised.
With 0-0 at half time captain Jon Keep just wanted everyone to stay focused and carry on with more of the same into the second half. The deadlock was broken when a Players cross clipped a saints foot in the D. The strike from the resulting penalty corner was not particularly clean, and the ball bobbled past Will Powell and Joe Wightman and onto the backboard to put Players 1-0 up. Saints piled on even more pressure from this point till the end of the match, but in spite of a number of chances they were unable to hit the mark. A great team performance, but lacking in the most important element – Goals!
MOTM goes to Adam Morgan for keeping the back line organised
DOTD goes to Tim for holding the ball too long – i.e. running the ball off the opposition baseline on several occasions without dropping the pass back to his team mates waiting at the P-spot!
Team: Will Powell (GK), Tim Riches, Adam Morgan, Joe Wightman, Martin Skinner, Sooraj Premsagar, Jon Keep, Rob Wightman, Connor Wright, Tim Warburton, Nigel Riches.
Mixed 2ndXI 1-3 Old Moults
Goals: Liam Cassidy
Old Moults progressed through to the second round of the Northants Mixed Cup in this closely fought encounter at Moulton Sports Complex. The game started off very evenly with much of the play around the middle of the pitch, with neither side really threatening on goal. Midway through the first half Old Moults took the lead with their first shot of the game.
The second half saw Saints mount a much stronger challenge, and they started to threaten on goal but couldn’t quite convert on a couple of occasions. Old Moults then doubled their lead. This really fired Saints into action though as they then dominated proceedings. They pulled a deserved goal back through Liam Cassidy. As they pressed for the equaliser they were caught out on the break as Old Moults sealed the game with a fine counter-attack.