Match Reports from 22nd March
Men’s 3rd XI 11-1 Coventry & North Warwick 3rd XI
Scorers: Knight (4), Rose (3), Pibworth (2), Thamby (2)
2 matches left to complete a championship winning season. Injured McIlwaine didn’t feel saints had the motivation pre-match to match this and sure enough a lacklustre start by saints was soon compounded after The visitors took the lead through a penalty corner. Saints were frustrated and could not get the fluidity the required. Shortly before halftime Saints hit back. Firstly Knight swivelled to score in the corner before he doubled his tally thanks to a lovely flick into the corner.
The second half saw a goal fest. Dan Rose soon got in on the action with 2 reverse shots into the D. His dance and yelp were evident of his happiness. The 5th goal came from Thamby deflecting in a Hillier penalty corner, before Athiq Thamby turned provider, squaring the ball for Pibworth to Coast home. Thamby again got in on the action after an initial penalty corner was saved making the score 7-1. Saints were far from finished, this time Pibworth tapping in the keepers initial save from a shot. Rose them completed the hatrick with a fabulously directed reverse from the top of the D. To complete the rout Jack Knight came back to double his tally to 4 goals. Firstly after being played in by Rose, before finishing off from a pass from Uni bound Lewis Moran
Oh particular note in second half was Scott Bashford getting a touch of the ball.
Promotion is now guaranteed. The championship all but, however a trip to Loughborough should settle this on Saturday.
Squad: Scott Bashford (gk), Steve Morris, James Miller, Jason Hillier, Luke Pibworth, Dan Rose, Nigel Down, Harry Stobart, Pete Comben, Jack Knight, Elliot Wilde, Athiq Thamby
Men’s 4th XI 2-3 West Bridgford 5th XI
Goals: Rob Huish (2)
Saints travelled to West Bridgford knowing just one point would secure their Premier league status for another season. They started brightly controlling the ball well and deservedly took the lead when poacher Rob Huisch finished off a flowing move . Instead of pushing Saints seemed to sit back and became guilty of playing too many Hollywood passes that were easy to pick up by the very experienced West Bridgford defence who had a fairly basic approach to hockey of winning the ball and hitting long to their strikers. Two such breaks were both finished off in quick succession to leave the Saints trailing 2-1. Saints rallied again through Rob Huish to equalise from a well executed short corner routine. Right on the stroke of half time West Bridgford again caught the Saints on the break to take a 3-2 lead.
The second half saw tactics of West Bridgford along the lines of thou shalt not pass and provocation – which were unfortunately enough to snuff out any really clear cut chances for the Saints in the second half. A lot of huffing & puffing but no real control saw the Saints end up pointless along with picking up a yellow card for an anglo saxon profanity from Naisan Dehghani.
All eyes are now on the visit of Sutton Coldfiekd which becomes a must win game to avoid all eyes being on the vidy printer on Final score