Match Reports from Saturday 9th March
Men’s 1st XI 5-4 Edgbaston
Goals: OG, Christian Howard, Joe Kopka, Andy Peters, Gareth Parker.
The 1st team came out winners in this end to end fixture at Moulton College. Midfielders Christian Howard and Gareth Parker found themselves on the score sheet along with forwards Andy Peters and Joe Kopka. This victory sees Saints hold onto 6th spot in the Midlands Premier Division.
Men’s 2nd XI 2-3 Warwick University 2nd XI
Goals: Ian Tipples, Alex Blunt
As the season entered “squeaky bum time”, Saints travelled to Warwick knowing that victory would secure 1st spot and promotion into the Midlands Premier Division. Sadly for Northampton they came up against a very spirited Warwick side who deservedly took all 3 points from this game.
Northampton found themselves 1 goal down midway through the first half, and despite looking rarely troubled after this, they failed to create any real chances themselves as they got carelessly caught in possession, or tried too often to play the long ball into the D.
The second half continued as the first half had, and Warwick soon doubled the score with a slightly fortueusus goal. 2-0 down and suddenly saints sprung to life, and for the first time in the match they discovered their short sharp passing that has seen them be unplayable against at times. Such a move saw the ball neatly sprayed from right to left allowing a ball to be played across the D to fin Alex Blunt at the back-post for a simple tap in.
10 minutes to go and Warwick came back again to make it 3-1. But not to be outdone Saints made it 3-2 as an Ian Tipples rocket of a short corner was deflected into the goal. Despite there being 5 minutes left that was the last real chance Northampton created and they disappointingly missed out on what would have been a vital point.
Next week sees them host Bournville at Moulton. Once again 3 points will confirm them as Champions.
MOTM: Jack Pogson – strong performance in the middle of the park.
DOTD: Guy Roberts – too busy arguing with the opposition and umpires.
Squad: Sam Biddle (GK), Ally Rose, George Roberts, Guy Roberts, Matt Gausden, Chris Reid, Dan Whittaker, George Rockell, Sam Mitchell, Jack Pogson, Tom Wightman, Dan Rose, Greg Summers, Ian Tipples, Alex Blunt.
Men’s 3rd XI 2 – 3 Belper 3rd XI
Scorers: Pibworth, Moran
Saints playing top of the league Belper was always going to be tough, especially as they had lost 4-0 to second in the league the previous week.
Saints however refused to be deterred and played exceptionally well in the opening minutes. There were some great transfers across the pitch, and Stobart and Moran troubling the left back. Saints took the lead after fantastic interchanges between Gamble and Moran, whose inch perfect cross was converted in by Pibworth. Soon after it were 2 up. Defensive mistakes lead to a saved shot falling into the grateful path of Moran who directed the ball into the goal. Saints went off the pace a bit towards the end of the half, however still looked comfortable. Shortly before half time, Belper pulled a goal back after the attacker cut inside and scored passed the helpless Powell.
The second half remained tight for both teams. Lewington, along with some visionary passes from the back by Dale, Riches and Miller, meant that the focus was on attack and not just defence. As the game wore on, Belper won a series of penalty corner. From one of these they scored on the rebound to equalize.
As time drew to a close, a draw seemed a fair but good result; however a defensive clearance went terribly wrong as Powell connected with his own pad and not the ball, meaning an agonising winner for Belper.
MOTM: Harry Stobart
DOTD: Will Gamble: For a comical fall that some people thought they saw
Squad: Adam Powell (GK), Harry Stobart, Andy Dale, Ian Mcilwaine (c), Lee O’Donnell, Lewis Moran, Luke Pibworth, Tom Lewington, Pete Riches, Will Gamble, Nigel Down, Andy Wade, James Miller
Men’s 4th XI 5-0 Leek 5th XI
Goals: Simon Chapman, Lloyd Atkinson, Jack Knight (2), Steve Morris.
A full strength 4th team marched out on to fortress Moulton for what was to be the game that secured them as League champions…
The game started well with Saints pushing hard dominating the midfield and pressing the Leek defence with pace and ball accuracy. It wasn’t long before the Leek defence gave way to Lloyd Atkinson who squared the ball to Simon Chapman shipping the ball nicely home, 1 – 0.
Saints continued their push with some great midfield play from Harry Yorke, Garry Patterson and Steve Morris. Saints secured a penalty corner from the crumbling defence of Leek. Lloyd Atkinson SMASHED a ball straight in the bottom corner past the dumbstruck defence 2-0.
Lloydovic was yellow carded for telling umpire to chill out & put in Sin bin for 5 mins, however Saints looked well in control with Ten Men with the Defensive duties of the Awesome back four Richard Wharton, Jim Phipps, Steve Morris & the awesome cameo appearance of Jason Hillier.
Saints continued to dominate the game and this was rewarded with a great play by Harry Yorke who shipped the ball across the D to a waiting Jack Knight who calmly slapped the ball in the back of the net! 3-0
With the game secured we saw adventurous play from Steve Morris, despite his nosebleed in the oppositions D he managed to scramble the ball passed the Belper Keeper. 4- 0. The Final nail in the coffin came from Jack Knight; a perfectly placed rocket shot in the bottom left 5-0.
Well played to all the lads, but this championship wouldn’t have been won without a real team effort, so a special mention to the following chaps for outstanding play throughout the season… A true team effort: Chris Godman, Luke Howard, Matt Calendar, Anthony Condon.
Points of note:
- Simon“Oscar Pass me the ball” who’s Oscar… Oh it’s Hugo??
- Inspiration ‘Kinetic’ warm up
- Lloyd’sReverse stick sandwedge Defying Physics
- JimsTackle – unbelievable majestic speed and grace
- Opposition “Its ok to elbow someone off the ball”
- Simonforgot his Socks
- Jackleft his Stick in the tennis courts
- Bash’sawesome stick save!
MOTM: The Team & Jack Knight as the individual who stood out!
DOTD: Lloyd for numerous offences
Finally a massive thank you to Dave ‘Ice Man’ Henry our inspirational Captain, the calm can do attitude really helped push the team to its success!
West Bridgford 3-0 Men’s 6th XI
An intrepid posse of 6’s and 7’s players headed out to Wild West Bridgeford on Saturday to hunt down a veteran gang of outlaws who earlier in the season had convincingly robbed them of three points. Things did not start well with a number of players turning up late, Deputy Dermot Cassidy had forgot to fuel his horse, the stagecoach carrying Joshua Pibworth broke down and so we were late setting off. Then on route we encountered a Grapes of Wrath style exodus into Nottingham which meant the team turned up just in time for the pushback.
Sheriff Richard Smith had decided upon a tactical change in the formation with a 5-4-1 circling of the wagons and a half court press style of play with the aim of containing and frustrating the ageing outlaws and for large portions of the game this tactic worked as slow ball speed from the opposition played into our hands. Tim Riches played well as the lone star striker a performance that was even more impressive when Sheriff Smith discovered that normally he plays in defence, a miss communication from the pony express causing the problem. The only time the system broke down was when one of the team went off chasing the ball like a prairie dog in heat and then WB attacked convincingly down our exposed flank.
Half time saw the 6’s posse two down but having carved out a couple of chances. The second half followed a similar pattern, lots of pressure on the defence however a couple of clear chances were still created with some impressive runs down the left from man of the match Anthony Walder who even attracted the praise of the opposition. Will Powell had an excellent game in goal making some great saves and both Rob and Josh at the back made some great saves with Deputy Dermot cleaning up and making some great interceptions. In the second half WB were only able to add one more goal to their tally.
DoTD was an easy decision with Darren Thorpe and Phil Adams playing the roles of Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist and booking their Brokeback Mountain weekend at a naturist centre in the Lake District during the hockey season rather than abstaining for another three weeks. A love so pure they made a film about it.
MotM – Anthony Walder
DotD – Darren and Phil.
Mens 7th XI 1-1 Derby Asterdale 4th XI
Goal: Dean Gibson
With many 7s players being promoted to higher teams the 7s were a bit more walking wounded than most. Nigel Wright was drafted in at the last minute to play in goal, allowing regular keeper Dean Gibson to have his chance at the other end of the pitch. The match was quite scrappy for both sides, and initially the direction of play was more related to who had made the least mistakes rather than any particular skills or abilities! Miss-hit passes and poor first touch for pretty much every player on the pitch kept the ball solidily stuck in the midfield area. Owain Mahoney was featuring strongly in a number attacks, linking up well with forwards Adam Wright and Dean Gibson providing the 7s with some early opportunites.
At the other end of the pitch Martin Skinner was having a solid game, breaking down most of the Derby attacks with some sturdy tackling. Unfortunately his use of the back of his stick (and subsequent protests) earnt him a green card. This didn’t stop Martin from making many more tough tackles and frustrating the Derby attackers.
At the other end of the pitch Owain Mahoney found himself with a lot of space at the top of the D and sent a ball goalwards. Stuart Mclaren deflected this past the last defender, gifting birthday boy Dean Gibson with a tap in to put the 7s 1-0 up. Just on the stroke of halftime Derby managed to win a penalty corner. Nigel blocked the first shot, but was unable to get to the rebound, bringing the scores level 1-1.
Dean provided the team with half time cakes and the team were told to keep working hard till the end of the game – with 11 players each it was going to be a game of endurance!
Refreshed after the break the 7s were applying some good pressure to the Derby half. Some great work on the left from Owain Mahoney, and the right from Tim Waumsley kept play towards derby, but the 7s were unable to make a decisive drive into the D to get a solid shot away. The story was the same at the other end with the 7s defence doing a great job breaking down Derby’s attacks outside of our 25 yard line. The second half was mostly made up of a lot of midfield melees and as tiredness set in the number of mistakes ensured neither side were likely to break the deadlock.
MoM: Owain Mahoney – great performance working hard in attack and defence
DoD: Martin Skinner – who was one vote from winning both MoM and DoD….