The Sunday Saints stormed their way through to the quarter finals of the Shelton cup after a convincing 6-1 win over Division One North leaders Shooters FC.
The home side opened the scoring after about 10 minutes, Phil Davies broke clear and fired a fierce shot into the bottom corner. Shooters could have hit back immediately after the number 9’s first shot was saved onto the bar by Mike Ward, with the whole of the goal to aim for on the rebound 3 yards out he sliced his effort high and wide. It was the Saints who bagged the next goal an in swinging Dan Jones corner was met at the far post by Davies who guided his header into the far post. On 20 minutes Zack Snape cleared the ball up the line and the winger caught him late after some handbags the referee took action and showed the winger a straight red card, he then showed Snape a yellow for his part. A few minutes later it was three a neat ball from the midfield found Davies who escaped the offside trap and was through on goal it looked like he was about to bag his hat trick but he unselfishly squared the ball to striker Craig Forsyth who finished well from 10 yards. It was quickly four after arguably the best passage of play of the half in which the Saints moved the ball out of defence and through the midfield the ball was moved to the right wing after a neat ball by Lloyd Holland, Gaffer Gareth Jenkins crossed the ball to Snape who hit a right footed half volley into the far corner. It was Shooters who ended the half with the scoring, the lively number 7 broke through the midfield passed to the striker who stayed onside and finished well past Ward. Half Time 4-1.
Player manager Gareth Jenkins who was on target today.
Shooters came out in the second half lively especially the number 7 who moved inside from his wing position to match up with the Saints three man midfield. The Saints always looked sharp on the break and Forsyth had the ball in the net again only to have it ruled out for offside. A fifth goal did come eventually, another pass from Holland found Jenkins and he hit the ball across the keeper into the far corner. Shooters had a couple of opportunities from long range and free kicks but they came to nothing. The finishing was done about ten minutes from time, another good move resulted with the ball being squared across the box and Forsyth was on hand again to net a close range finish. Full Time 6-1.
Possibly the best performance of the season to date and especially against a team on top of the their league, they might argue that the sending off changed the game for them, but in truth the Saints were totally bossing the game with 22 men on the field, if anything the Saints took the foot off the gas slightly. Another big game next Sunday when we host Commercial.