Match Reports from Saturday 2nd November 2013
Men’s 1stXI 5-1 Nottingham University
Goals: Christian Howard, Ben Scot (3), Alex Press.
Saints came into the match on a three match winning streak so confidence was high against Nottingham University. A fourth mid table clash in as many weeks meant another three points was essential if Saints were to continue climbing the table.
The first ten minutes were very scrappy as both sides struggled to find their rhythm. After a period of pressure by the away side it was Saints who buckled first conceding a sloppy short corner after failing to clear their lines. The resulting drag flicked managed to find its way between Seb Jones and Paul Madeley to give the away side a one nil lead. Two minutes later, Madeley kept Saints in the game with an incredible double save somehow deflecting a low shot over the crossbar.
For the remainder of the half it was Saints who were on top. However, after wasted chances, a saved short corner and losing possession when in the opposition D it looked like Saints were going to head into half time behind. That was until, two minutes from time Grant Carlin chased what looked like a lost cause in the right wing corner of the pitch. A fantastic sliding tackle dispossessed the Uni left back and with Stuart Clark on hand to pick up the loose ball and cross smartly, Christian Howard was left with an easy tap in at the far post. Half time 1-1.
Similar to the last 3 weeks, Saints had been on top in the first half but had to remain patient going into the second 35 minutes.
The home side took complete control of possession in the second half and with Sam Browne, Jamie Webb and Ian Cooper proving impervious in the Saints defence, it was always going to be Saints who scored the next goal. A second short corner was won after good work by Stuart Clark and Joe Kopka on the left which gave Ben Scott the chance to drag flick Saints into the lead. 2-1. Five minutes later. After another extended period of possession, Saints won their third corner of the game after Dave Saunders and Scott combined on the right to find a defenders foot and give the home side another chance to score. Saints executed the same routine as before, Clark injects, Jones stops and Scott found the bottom corner again.
During the next ten minutes the game opened up and Saints were able to break at pace as Nottingham University began to tire. Non-stop running by Ashley Smith and Joe Kopka controlled the midfield and although Saints wasted their 4thshort corner, the next goal was never going to be far away. Alex Press led to the right hand side and after a one two with Carlin, won Saints another corner. A perfect injection from Clark was stopped by Jones and Scott stepped up to flick home into the top corner for his hat-trick. 4-1 and the game was out of sight.
For the remainder of the game, Saints controlled possession and looked completely at ease but there was still time for one last goal. Stuart Clark chased back to the halfway to win possession for Saints and fed Dave Saunders on the left. A great lead from Joe Kopka into the Nottingham University 25 meant he received the ball in space and was able to pick out Alex Press on the back post who deflected home.
The game ended 5-1 and gave Saints their fourth win on the bounce. Next week they travel to Edgbaston hoping to make it five and give Saints their highest points total at this stage of the season for 6 years.
Men’s 2ndXI 3-2 Rugby & East Warwick 2ndXI
Goals: Tristan O’Connor (2), Dan Whittaker
Saints made the short journey to face their local rivals Rugby & East Warwick. Having been the 2 newly promoted teams this season, it was always going to be a close match, and it certainly proved to be!
Northampton got off to a blistering start and were a goal up after just 5 minutes as a James Knibb cross found fellow forward Tristan O’Connor at the back post to tap in. With Saints in the ascendancy it seemed only a matter of time before they doubled their lead. Indeed a well worked short corner routine allowed Dan Whittaker to tap in at the far post. As the half wore on Saints maintained their pressure on Rugby, with the defence of Ally Rose, Ben Northedge and Greg Summers dealing with everything very comfortably. However despite all the pressure they couldn’t force a killer third goal and the first half finished 2-0.
The second half saw Rugby come out all guns blazing and they capitalised on Saints reacting slowly in their own D, to snatch a goal back. Ten minutes later Rugby equalised through a short corner and suddenly it looked as though Rugby could go onto win it. However Saints had other ideas as they began to take control once again. The midfield of Matt Gausden, Chris Reid andScott Mahoney began to dictate the play again whilst the wing of Tom Hewitt and Sam Mitchell caused the opposition plenty of trouble. Saints then got the deserved winner from another short corner as O’Connor deflected in a James Knibb strike to make it 3-2. As the game wore on Saints had further chances to win in but couldn’t make them count, and they were grateful to keeper Jay Worsfold who pulled off a superb reaction save to keep the score as it was.
The final ten minutes saw Saints sensibly hold onto the ball and in the end they ran out comfortable winners, despite the close score-line.
MOTM: Scott Mahoney, although as player coach Tom Hewitt put it, “it could have been any one of the squad after that performance”.
DOTD: Ben Northedge – for his lovely looking ‘guyliner’……
Squad: Jay Worsfold (GK), Ben Northedge, Ally Rose, Greg Summers, Dan Whittaker, Matt Gausden, Chris Reid (c), Sam Mitchell, Scott Mahoney, Tom Hewitt, James Knibb, Tristan O’Connor.
University of Warwick 3rd XI 0-2 Men’s 3rd XI
Scorers: Pibworth, Hillier (pc)
Saints travelled to the University of Warwick under threatening clouds and orders for a win. Warwick opted to change ends from the toss something Harry Stobartwas quoted as stating “I didn’t know you could do that”, clearly showing his hockey knowledge. Saints took the lead soon into the match after Pibworth (dubbed ‘Yellow shoes’ by Warwick for the crazy bright shoes) dispossessed the defender to blast home. Dan Rose went close twice with the inside of the keepers kicker keeping him out. Warwick almost equalised when an attacker went through one on one but a well-timed tackle from Bash saved the day. Not long after it was 2-0. Another penalty corner and once again Mr Hillier obliged. Amongst all going on a poorly Naison was seen charging speedily off to the toilets.
Second half saints seemed in control until Harry Stobart, yes Harry was shown a yellow for a 50/50 ball where it was deemed he had pushed the opponent to the ground. 2 greens later for Rose, and Bash from earlier, and Warwick started putting the pressure on. However re-organisation from the midfielders, combined with good skill from Athiq steadied the boat. Saints dominated the rest of the half and Saints held on for a good result, which couldn’t be said for Dan‘s hand after getting clattered just before the end. Special note for Bash getting his first clean sheet of the season.
Squad: Scott Bashford (gk), Jason Hillier, Ian McIlwaine (c), Harry Stobart, Naison Dehghani, James Miller, Pete Comben, Athiq Thamby, Luke Pibworth, Jack Knight, Dan Rose, Harry York
Men’s 4th XI 3-4 Belper 4th XI
Goals: Jon Noble, Rob Tee, Lloyd Atkinson.
It is too early in the season to call games 6 pointers but this was a real must win game for the Saints after a poor performance against Worcester the previous week. Saints started confidently moving the ball around – without really threatening the Belper goal – in fact the first 20 minutes were pretty uneventful. This changed when Saints got their first short corner which was expertly put away by a Jon Noble drag flick – all of a sudden Saints started to open up the Belper defence almost at will with a stream of aerials raining down on the Belper defence. It was no surprise that this route one approach yielded more dividends when Rob Tee finished superbly from a Jon Noble aerial. Comfortable at 2-0 up and Belper creating very little it was a real surprise when Belper reduced the deficit just before half time through a deflected short corner. Instead of letting the heads drop – another Noble aerial, expertly taken on by Rob Tee who squared for the lurking Lloyd Atkinson to convert – a real Wimbledon goal on the stroke of half time – 3-1 cruising……what on earth could go wrong !!
The second half started in similar vein as the first half – all of the good play and chances coming from the Saints – with Simon Chapman pulling the strings in midfield. The game completely changed in a mad 10 minutes midway through the second half when Belper scored 3 goals – one converted short corner and two goals on the break – each one very avoidable and defensively the Saints were at odds. At 4-3 down the Saints lost a little composure and started to force the game which was starting to become a little fractious. Gary ‘Rocky’ Paterson saw yellow for shadow boxing his central midfield opponent who also took the walk of shame – some would say more deservedly as the main aggressor and protagonist. Chance after chance came and went with the Belper keeper making a string of high quality saves in the remainder of the second to hold on for a valuable win for his team. This was a disappointing result for the Saints in a game that really they would have expected to win – but there is no room for moping in this league and they need to dust themselves down for a trip to West Bridgford on Saturday.
MOTM:- Simon Chapman
DOTD – Rocky Paterson
Men’s 6thXI 1-5 Loughborough Town 5thXI
Goals: Adam Wright
Despite coming out on the wrong end of the result, Saints 6s showed some positive signs for the future with a battling display at Moulton Sports Centre.
With father and son Pete and Jonathan Adey making thier 6thteam debuts and twin and twin Connor and Adam Wright in defence, Saints were well set up for the visit of a strong Loughborough side. Loughborough had marginally better of the first half and turned pressure into a goal mid way through. However, Saints earned a short corner and after Chris Godman’s shot was well saved Adam Wrightwas on hand to force the ball over the line.
The younger players showed a lot of promise in this game. Owain Mahoney took a big step forward (although all his steps are big), stopping the ball well and laying it off. Also, despite being played in a different position every week Russ Eichmann is learning rapidly.
However, Saints fortunes turned with the weather early in the second half and were soon behind. As the half progressed it got tougher for Saints with injury curtailing an excellent midfield performance from Nigel Down. Chris Godman’s battling performance landed him in needing 3 stitches after a strike from Man of Match Adam Wright came off his stick and went directly upwards. Chris took it on the chin and carried on with the game. Despite this, it still earned Chris and Adam plenty of DOTD nominations later.
In the end it was a masterly performance in goal from Dad Adey that kept the score down. With Saints tiring, they lost some shape and with Loughborough threading passes well they converted a number of late chances and they got the game sewn up with a 5-1 win.
The 6s are at Moulton again next week with West Bridgeford the visitors 2pm start.
Squad: Pete Adey, Connor Wright, Adam Wright, Ian Street (c), Russ Eichmann, Tim Riches, Nigel Down, Chris Godman, Jonathan Adey, Michael Dicken, Owain Mahoney.
West Bridgford 9th XI 5-0 Men’s 7th XI
A tough game for the 7s this week. They were faced with a very well balanced Bridgford side, with several strong mature players supported by a number of keen enthusiastic 13-14 year old boys made for a tough match for the 7s. For much of the match the 7s were treated to a demonstration of how effective simple quick passes within small groups of 3-4 players can be. The 7s were under pressure from the off and within 5 minutes West Bridgford were already off the mark. On attack the 7s made hard work of it – a number of passes were wasted by being forced through defenders rather than looking for an open pass, the passes that did get through seemed to be a little wayward and left players wrong footed. The strongest attack came from captain Jon Keep with a determined run up the right of the pitch his cross finding Ben White unmarked to the left of the goal. Ben struck for goal, but the keeper made a great save to deny the 7s. Ben managed to recover the clearance but the second shot was again saved. Towards the end of the half a Bridgford forward struck a shot that found Tom Woodhouses foot, then bounced up into one of the young Bridgford players heads. Fortunately no major injury, but the damage was already done to the 7s with a short corner awarded and Tom securing the bulk of the DOTD votes for that day. Martin Skinner caught the first shot on his foot and as he was rolling on the ground clutching his foot in pain the Bridgford forward stepped round him to blast the ball into the backboard. Half time came with 7s already 3 goals down.
The second half saw a more positive display from the 7s with a couple of passages of play where possession was held well and the opposition D was put under some good pressure, but unfortunately some good goal keeping and defending denied 7s the chance of getting off the mark. Another penalty corner for Bridgford saw them increase their tally to 4, and then a bizarre sequence of play around the D culminating in the Bridgford centre mid chesting the ball down to his stick, hesitating for a second then striking the ball into the backboard. 7s worked hard to prevent any further goals, but were unable to create any more strong chances at the other end of the pitch. The game finished with 7s soundly beaten at 5-0.
MOTM: Tom Woodhouse – great effort in defence
DOTD: Tom Woodhouse – for kicking the ball into a 13 year olds head….
Squad: Jack Kelly (GK), Tom Woodhouse, Martin Skinner, Nigel Riches, Jon Keep, Ryan James, Ben White, Alastair Bowden, Del Bowie, Matthew Jenson, Rob Frost