Greg Summers and James Knibb both scored twice as Saints enjoyed a field day against Stourport, romping to an 8-0 win.
Saints fielded a very strong side against Stourport, with the hope of making it two wins on the bounce. They handed Greg Summers his debut as the squad lowered its average age yet again to 23!
Saints dominated from the start, not letting the away side out of their half for long periods and it wasn’t long until they took the lead.
A well-worked short corner from James Knibb and Gareth Parker allowed Joe Kopka to open the scoring at the back post.
Further goals from Christian Howard and James Knibb just before half time helped Saints into a comfortable position going into the break.
As the second half got under way, debut striker Summers set about tormenting the Stourport defence.
After a neat lay off he picked up a through pass from Press and coolly lifted the ball over the advancing keeper grab his first goal for the first team.
Shortly afterwards, he skipped past a defender before drilling in a magnificent ball to the back post which only just evaded the Saints strikers.
A goal from close range from Alex Press made the score 5-0.
A great counter attack then allowed Knibb to grab his second and a similar looking move allowed Summers to also bag two goals as it fired in from a back post cross.
Ben Scott wrapped things up with a short corner late on.
Although there will be far tougher tests to come, Saints did what they needed to do and will look for a third win in a row when they travel to bottom of the league Sutton Coldfield this weekend.
MOTM: Greg Summers
Squad: Paul Madeley (GK), Adam Croutear, Sean Henry, Jamie Webb, Steve Williams, Ben Scott (c), Dave Saunders, Christian Howard, Evan Morris, Joe Kopka, Gareth Parker, Alex Press, Greg Summers, James Knibb.
Saints IIs 0 Rugby & EW IIs 0
This weekend brought Saints to Rugby, feeling confident from the previous weeks’ 6-0 win against Loughborough Town.
Saints set out to continue their good form from the whistle, but the match started poorly for Saints with Rugby taking control right from the off.
The Northampton side settled down midway through the first half as the game balanced out, with both sides coming close on a number of attempts.
Saints created a few promising first half attempts, with the attacking midfielders creating runs and fast-paced counter play, but they were failing at the last hurdle to take the lead.
They persisted and throughout the first half, pouncing on any opportunity, and quick reactions from Alex Blunt brought the one and only successful pounce of the game.
Saints were getting frustrated towards the end of the first half, with Rugby’s constant pressure taking its toll on the team’s cohesion. There were strong performances from Robin Sawyer, Guy Roberts and Ben Northedge tp keep the Rugby attacks at bay. Again, just iike the previous week, the half time team talk gave Saints the boost they needed to improve their poor start to the first half of the game.
Playing strongly throughout the second half, Saints won a number of short corners and created many chances with strong runs and play from Dan Rose, Scott Mahoney and Alex Blunt threatening Rugby’s goal.
A quick snap shot on the turn from the captain Dan Whittaker that hit the outside of the post was the closest Saints game to a goal though.
Rugby also created a few close chances, but the game ended 0-0.
Squad: Robin Sawyer (GK), Guy Roberts, Lewis Ward, Pete Riches, Matt Gausden, Chris Reid, Ben Northedge, Danny Whitfield, Alexander Rose, Dan Whittaker (C), Alexander Blunt, Scott Mahoney, Dan Rose.
Saints IVs 7 Boots Vs 0
Some good Saints passing moves from the back line of Jim Phipps, Matt Candler, James Ruse and debutant Richard Whorton saw chances come thick and fast for the Saints.
But despite all of his trying Rob Cary, could not put the ball in between the sticks.
It was captain Dave Henry to put the Saints 1-0 up which opened up the game for saints to score two more goals before the end of the first half through Rob Tee and Henry again.
The second half saw Boots try and regain a grip of the game, but only saw them concede a penalty corner and up stepped Steve Morris to slot the ball home and make it 4-0.
Chris Godman scored the fifth goal for his celebration to be short lived as he slipped over behind the goal!!
Saints pushing forward meant that at times they were overrun, but the Saints defence stood strong to keep Boots at bay.
Captain Henry then Stepped up to slot home his hat trick! And Dysko to slot home the seventh goal to seal the victory.
Squad: Scott Bashford (GK), Jim Phipps , Richard Whorton, Matthew Candler, James Ruse, Steve Morris, Gary Paterson, David Henry (c) Rob Cary, Rob Tee, Tom Dysko, Chris Godman
Saints Vs 5 Boots IVs 4
Saints started strongly with Nick Beattie and Joe Cliffe’s pace causing the opposition problems on the right hand side.
This shortly led to a goal from Ed Arnold when he angled a touch perfectly to beat the keeper.
A strong performance from Phil Green in goal denied any goals from the opposition attack because of his casual and effortless saves. He made their shots look poor.
It wasn’t long before Saints widened their lead as they took advantage of a short corner. A drag flick from Jon Noble that was aimed at the post beat the defence to go bottom corner and give the saints a 2-0 lead.
Unfortunately, Saints could not deny Boots from scoring.
A save (with his stick) on the line from Karl McGregor was deemed as a foot and a flick was given.
A diving attempt at a save from Phil Preen only resulted in the flick looking better than it was.
The momentum momentarily changed. Boots then went on to score again before half time and arguably the blame could be shared between Phil Preen and Gareth Voss when a pass from the opposition to Voss not collected and the forward made another pass into the goal.
Extreme speed from Ant Condon allowed Noble to execute a head height drag flick from another short and put Saints once again in the lead.
Saints continued to have a promising attack. This allowed Beattie to capitalise when nudged the ball past the keeper. A sloppy Saints was then taken advantage of when Boots scored two goals to make it 4-4.
A goal from Nick Beattie soon happened - a poor but effective injection went to Krish who got round two players and passed the ball on to Nick. Beattie who turned and scored. The match finished 5-4 to give Saints the win.
Squad: Phil Green (GK), Ed Arnold, Krish J, Nick Beattie, Elliot Wilde, Gareth Voss, Ant Condon, Trev Fidler, Ali Townsend, Jon Noble, Joe Cliffe, Karl McGregor, Finn Pickard, Alex Jeffrey
Leicester IVs 3 Saints VIs 2
Travelling to top of the table Leicester with only 11 players was never going to make life easy for the VIs.
The team started strongly with Darren Thorpe and Phil Knight controlling midfield and the team created the better chances with Harry Yorke slotting one of these away to take the lead.
Leicester came back strongly and the VIs conceded two soft goals, the first from another short corner with the striker having far too much time to pick his spot and the second from an acute angle when a missed trap on the left of defence proved costly. The second half started badly with Rob O’Donnell having to go off for the rest of the game with a foot injury.
The VIs battled really well and played some good hockey on the break with the pace of Patrick Rowntree causing the Leicester defence problems, and from one break the 10 men grabbed an equaliser.
Leicester were always going to come back strong with a 13-man squad and despite some inspired observational comments from the side lines which were warmly welcomed by the team they did begin to create chances and one scramble in the D saw the umpire award a flick.
The flick was poorly taken but managed to squirm under the stick of Jake Bennett in the goal. Saints VIIs 1 Nuneaton IVs 3
Saints started shakily, giving the ball away easily and putting themselves under pressure early on.
The defensive line was doing a good job keeping control, and in spite of the pressure there were no real shots taken.
The biggest event of note during this passage of play was Nigel Riches getting caught in the ear from a deflected ball.
As the half wore on, Saints’ midfield started getting a bit more structure and were making some stronger runs into their D.
Rob Frost and Tim Warburton both had several close chances, but the finish was just not there for either player.
At the other end of the pitch a deflected cross flew in towards keeper Dean Gibson and land on the top of his shin guard before rolling forwards right onto the stick of an opposing forward - before Gibson was able to get a foot to the ball the forward had slipped the ball coolly into the corner to put Nuneaton 1-0 up.
Saints woke up a bit more after this and were attacking with a lot more determination and purpose.
Even the left back Tom Woodhouse got in on the act with a mazy run from the halfway line, linking up with Connor Wright nicely to get another good chance that was again left begging by the two forwards.
Connor was having another great match until on one of his penetrating attacking runs he collided with a defender and broke his glasses. In spite of this Connor continued his determined performance for the rest of the match.
In the second half Saints piled pressure onto the Nuneaton D.
Eventually Jon Keep picked up a pass just outside the top of the D and found his way past several defenders to some space for him to place a great shot into the back corner of the goal.
At 1-1 the VIIs were in good shape to push on for their first ever win.
Unfortunately while the pressure continued for a while, Nuneaton soaked this up well and then broke well on a number of occasions leaving the midfield and forwards chasing back.
Two goals came in short succession as saints became visibly tired. The Saints didn’t give in and had several further chances but in the same way as the first half, were unable to finish.
Squad: Dean Gibson (GK), Tom Woodhouse, Martin Skinner, Nigel Riches, Tim Riches, Adam Wright, Jon Keep, Charlie Harte, Connor Wright, Tim Warburton, Rob Frost.
LADIES
Saints IIIs 3 Wellingborough IIs 2
After a slow start, Saints found themselves 2-0 down.
Not applying enough pressure or marking key players was their initial downfall.
Saints’ first goal came from defence through to midfield, switched to Kate Barnetson picked up nicely then a fantastic cross through to Laura Thomas who picked up on reverse and turn and hit into the goal 2-1.
Through quick prep talk and good organising, our second goal came from a practised set piece on a short, amd it was 2-2 by half-time.
After a positive team talk, Saints were strong in the second half.
The defence marked well, the midfield was sorted out by Ness Kingston who marked out two of Wellingborough’s key players restricting their attacking moves and breaking down their play.
The forwards worked harder than ever, running onto balls, and Clare Noble scored the winning goal to make the final score 3-2.
MOTM: Becca Collins
Towcester 5 Saints 0
TOWCESTER turned in a dominant display to hammer county rivals Saints in the Midlands Premier Division.
The first half saw both sides play well, but Towcester maximised their short corner chances to score twice through Lisa Prince.
From then on it was the Helen Parr show as she scored her second successive hat-trick to seal an emphatic win.
Towcester are at Leicester on Saturday.
Squad: Sue Willers, Janet Graham, Mel Linnel, Charlotte Hurst, Gemma English, Ella Bevan, Hannah Edwards, Helen Parr, Jo Walker, Jen O’Neil, Lisa Prince, Laura Whittle
Uttoxeter 4 Towcester IIs 2
THIS was a harsh scoreline on Towcester, who deserved much more from the game.
All of Uttoxeter’s goals were scored on the break.
Towcester’s goals were scored by Lisa Groves and Laura Abbott.
Towcester IIs 0 Saints IVs 2
ANOTHER excellent performance from the IIIs went unrewarded as they were beaten by Saints.
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