Alex Press and Joe Kopka both scored twice as Saints hammered Harborne 6-1.
The first team hosted Harborne hoping to return to winning ways after the previous week’s disappointing draw to bottom of the league Sutton.
Harborne were one place below Saints going into the fixture after a string of impressive results against tough opposition so the game promised to be a tight one.
Saints enjoyed the majority of possession early on and the defence of Jamie Webb, Adam Croutear and Sean Henry held very firm against any Harborne attack.
It wasn’t long before Saints took the lead.
A quick attack down the right resulted in Press crossing for Steve Williams to cleverly deflect the ball past the keeper.
Minutes later Press double the lead from close range after his bobbled shot squeezed under the Harborne keeper.
As the half went on possession evened out between the two sides but it was still Saints who looked more threatening.
Another quick break away after Press stole the ball in midfield resulted in Joe Kopka scoring from close range to make it 3-0.
Five minutes before half time Jamie Webb was sin-binned.
Harborne made their numerical advantage pay when they pulled a goal back from a short corner. 3-1 is always a risky score line to end the half on but Saints didn’t rest there.
With one minute to go Saints broke from midfield and after good play from Dave Saunders and Steve Williams, Kopka restored Saints three goal advantage to end the half 4-1.
The second half was a more scrappy affair with Harborne committing men forward and Saints breaking with pace at every opportunity.
Mike Joyce and Guy Roberts both put in solid displays at the back and their experience was important as Harborne started to pressure the home side defence.
With the defence holding firm at the back it gave the pacey Saints forwards a chance to break away and put the game out of reach with a fifth goal, this time it was Christian Howard bagging his third in three games.
As the game drew to a close, Saints controlled things well in midfield with tireless work from Dave Saunders and Gareth Parker.
The home side were able to add another late on after another trademark break away, Press getting his second of the game from three yards out.
A well-earned 6-1 victory was no less than Saints deserved as they put away a strong ex national league side.
Rising to fifth in the table, Saints have the chance to go fourth if they win away at West Bridgford on Saturday, but it will be a sterner test.
The first team would like to thank all the supporters that came to watch. It does make a big difference.
Squad: Paul Madeley (GK), Sean Henry, Jamie Webb, Adam Croutear, Guy Roberts, Mike Joyce, Ben Scott (c), Dave Saunders, Gareth Parker, Christian Howard, Steve Williams, Jon Noble, Alex Press, Joe Kopka.
Saints IIs 2 Edgbaston IIs 0
Northampton travelled to Edgbaston in this mid-table clash on Saturday.
The game started poorly for Saints as they struggled for possession and rhythm.
However after a scrappy first 10 minutes they found their stride and even an injury to midfielder Chris Reid didn’t disrupt the team.
The deserved breakthrough for Saints came mid-way through the first half, as skipper Dan Whittaker scored mid-way inside the D after a well worked move down the right.
The rest of the half continued with Saints dominating possession, and Jack Pogson in particular posing plenty of problems for the Edgbaston defence. It stayed 1-0 until half-time.
Half-time and some wise words from Whittaker and Reid kept Northampton focused.
The second half got underway and it was more of the same from Saints.
Plenty of possession, just a slight lack of killer instinct in the final third.
Whitfield came close to a second with a penalty corner that flew just over the crossbar.
The second and final goal came after 55 minutes, as Greg Summers picked up a superb through ball and neatly rounded the keeper and walked the ball into the goal.
The last 15 minutes were comfortably seen out by Northampton as they sensibly kept the ball.
The win sees them push up to third in the table.
Squad: Robin Sawyer (GK), Danny Whitfield, Lewis Ward, Ally Rose, Chris Reid, Matt Gausden, Ben Northedge, Dan Whittaker (c), Sam Mitchell, Alex Blunt, Greg Summers, Jack Pogson, Tom Wightman
Saints IIIs 0 Warwick University IIIs 3
Sharp, controlling and clinical...three words Saints weren’t this week.
Warwick University presented more of a threat then their lowly winless position showed, however Saints did not help, giving the ball away far too cheaply. Warwick scored twice, both goals tap-ins, as the defence were unable to clear the ball.
Saints did up the tempo in the second half showing that they had a desire to win, but time and time again they were unable to get the final pass in.
After being camped in the Warwick half, two or three short corners came and went. Saints knew it was not going to be their day when Warwick deflected in a short corner to score their third from what must have been only four shots all match.
One point from two games has shown Saints that they need to look for more than just possession, and start to dictate play on their terms if they are to improve on mid-table meritocracy this season.
Squad: Adam Powell (GK), George Rockell, James Miller, Jason Hillier, Andy Wade, Harry Stobart, Ian McIlwaine, Lewis moran, George Roberts, Luke Pibworth, Hugo Day, Andy Dale, Richard Whorton
Saints IVs 5 Lichfield IVs 0
The game started with the Saints IVs knowing it would be a challenging, up against a Lichfield IVs team that was second in the league and without a loss.
Pressure was on Lichfield’s defence for most of the first half but it stood strong.
This remained unchanged until late in the first half when Saints were awarded a penalty stroke (for a foot on the goal line),
Luke Howard stepped up to give them the lead going in to half time.
Going into the second half with the lead, Saints had plenty of confidence that they could keep the lead and retain a sixth clean sheet this season.
Saints Started the half strongly, applying a lot of pressure onto Lichfield’s defence, another goal was almost certain.
That goal came with their passing play creating great chances for goals with Max Dymmond taking his chance with a lovely strike on goal from the penalty spot. Another great move down the right side of the pitch from Dave Henry and Max Dymmond eventually leaving an open goal for Luke Howard to score.
At this point Lichfield had started to gain a little momentum and fight back have numerous attacks but our defence still holding out and not letting a goal in and maintaining the clean sheet run.
Once again Chris Godman found himself in a position for an opportunity to appear this time being successful in scoring.
It was 4-0 and Saints found themselves defending for a large part of the end of the second half, it was obvious that Lichfield really wanted a goal with almost constant waves of attacks.
With Saints unable to get out of their own half for a five minute period, the chances of the clean sheet were decreasing.
However, with some saves from Scott Bashford and a solid performance from the defence a counter attack was soon organised, Steve Morris playing a lovely through ball for Howard to run through nutmeg the last defending to find himself striking from the top of the D for the final goal of the game and his third for the day.
The game ended 5-0 to keep them top of the league by five points with a conceded goal or loss yet to come.
Squad: Scott Bashford (GK), Matt Candler, Jeremy Wang, Gary Paterson, James Ruse, Chris Godman, Steve Morris, Ant Condon, Dave Henry(c), Luke Howard, Tom Dysko, Rob Tee, Max Dymmond.
Saints Vs 0 Beeston Vs 2
Saints faced a tough challenge with a bare 11 men against a Beeston side in a similar league position to themselves.
With a new look defence made up of a centre back Adam Morgan and debutant Joe Wightman (who put in an impressive performance), Saints started to build well from the back, moving the ball about and creating good attacks using the left and right wings of Alex Jeffrey and Ricard Price.
Phil Preen pulled out some stellar saves in goal and Saints bombarded the opposition 25 but were unable to get anything from the game as Beeston scored two unanswered goals.
Squad: Phil Preen (GK), Joe Wightman, Adam Morgan, Karl McGregor, Ali Townsend, Ricard Price, Gareth Voss, Krish Jasinarachchi, Alex Jeffrey, Rob Cary, Ed Arnold (C).
Beeston VIs 4 Saints VIs 2 Once again a lack of squad players cost Saints dearly in a tough away game against a well drilled Beeston side.
Travelling with only 11, Saints were 2-0 down in the opening 15 minutes to two well-taken goals and both Richard Smith and Dermot Cassidy picked up injuries which slowed them both down a bit. As the half wore on the deeper lying defence started to deny Beeston space in the corners and Saints mounted a few attacks on the break.
Young Liam Cassidy broke into the D to slip a pass to a wide open Finn Pikard who slotted the chance away.
Finn had earlier created a half chance for himself running past three defenders and the goalie, however he was pushed too wide to get an accurate shot on goal. H
At half time it was 2-1 and the walking wounded were still in the game. The second half started evenly, however Beeston still had most of the possession and always looked dangerous, with Saints playing on the break.
Against the run of play slightly Liam Cassidy equalised from a corner and for a while Beeston were rattled, their extra squad players and the experience that they had in the side started to show and they scored two goals in the last 15 minutes to secure the points.
Some good individual performances from the team with Finn making some good runs and creating problems and John Bennett and Dermot at the back made some timely tackles.
Saints VIIs 7 Nottingham VIs 0
Saints travelled to Goosedale in Nottingham for this week’s fixture.
After a pretty grim and miserable drive up the M1 the sun finally came out as the team arrived at the pitch.
Unfortunately it took a little bit longer for Saints to get up to speed on pitch.
A very shaky first 20 minutes going into the game, and the side looked like they are going to have a tough fixture.
The midfield seemed to be trying to perform their own interpretation of a bad fireworks display by shooting off in random directions up the pitch with no particular direction or coordination.
Eventually, the team settled in and started to get a bit more control of the game.
Several forays into the D and a few chances went begging, but the momentum was with Saints.
A couple of well-struck shots were stopped by the post man on the right.
Eventually the pressure was converted into a goal by Connor Wright, who slapped in a shot on the back post from a testing pass across the goal. Saints went to half time leading 1-0.
From the outset of the second half Saints were much more dominant.
Nottingham were pressed back into their own half.
An early goal from Ian Street opened the floodgates and Jon Keep managed to cause an own goal when his cross to Jack Knight was mishit by a defender straight into the goal.
Charlie Graham, Josh Pibworth and Jack Knight all picked up passes near to the goal to find their way onto the scoresheet, but the goal of the day went to Sooraj Premsagar, who managed to steal the ball from the opposition centre back on the edge of the D and run it round him before flicking a beautiful shot straight into the right of the goal.
Squad: Dean Gibson (GK), Ian Street, Martin Skinner, Nigel Riches, Michael Dicken, Joshua Pibworth, Jon Keep (c), Sooraj Premsagar, Connor Wright, Jack Knight, Rob Frost, Charlie Graham
 |  |