The Saints found themselves under intense pressure right from the kick off and keeper Bryan Kirkham made an excellent save in the second minute when the Aber striker was through one on one with him, Kirkham using his legs to keep the ball out. Aber opened the scoring in the fifth minute when another raid down the left found the Aber number 9 who finished at the near post. From the kick off the Saints found Josh Davies on the right who skipped by a player and played the ball in to Rob Sneddens feet out wide right,Snedz then made a jinking run along the 18 yard box beating a couple of players before laying the ball off to winger Jamie Howard who hit his shot first time and floated the ball perfectly over the Aber keeper into the top corner of the net fot the goal of the game and to make the scores 1-1 after 6 miuntes. The rest of the half the Saints had to dig deep against a very young and fit Aber side who passed the ball with pace and again Kirkham had to be at his best to keep them out. The Saints best chance came on the counter attack when Tom Weaver passed for Snedz to beat his man and hit a shot which went inches wide of the right hand post. Aber scored their second goal in the 41st minute to go in at the break 2-1 up.
The second half began much the same as the first and within 3 minutes it was 3-1 with Abers classy number 9 netting his hat-trick. Kirkham again made several saves to keep the tie alive and with about 20 minutes to go the Saints found themselves getting on top with Kevin Jones,Snedz and Weaver all having chances in the box but they couldn’t find the finishing touch and with about 2 to go it was Abers number 9 who got his and his teams number 4.
The Saints today cme up against the best side they have played against in a long while. The lads gave it their all and battled hard for ninety minutes. We had several players missing but the ones who wore the shirt today can be proud of a gutsy performance against a side whose passing and movement was a pleasure to watch. Kirkham again gets my man of the match along with defender Phil Davies who never put a foot wrong all game.