Vs Vale Juniors.
(Callum Bailey, Tom Cawley, Dan Tute, Harry Nesbit, Adam Cartwright
(c), Scott Dinsley, Patrick Swallow, Ben Heginbotham, Kai Loftus,
Adam Leonard, Josh Churchman, Owen Taylor)
The Saints were dealt an opening day visit to the Albert Steele
trophy champions of last year for there first game of the season and
took an injury ravaged team to back lane. Vale started very brightly
and rushed into a lead scoring two goals in the first half, thanks
are given to stand in goalkeeper Callum who also made some fantastic
saves to limit the score at half time.
The second half continued in the same vain as the Saints struggled
to cope with the pace of some of the Vale players but to our credit
we never let our heads drop and battled for every tackle possible.
Our hard work was paid off late in the half as a continued push on
the Vale defence saw Owen brought down on the edge of the box. Scott
stepped up and expertly slotted the resulting free kick into the top
corner. The saints then pushed for more and some good build up play
saw Owen fed through and he very impressively lobbed the keeper on
the stroke of the final whistle.
In all a difficult 1st game which we handled very well and never
gave up. The game may have been different if we could have scored
earlier as the Vale defence panicked after we got one back and let
us in again straight after, they were the ones who were glad of the
final whistle.
Final score Vale 6 - 2 Saints.