The Sunday Saints progressed to the semi-final of the Shelton Cup after a 5-0 victory.
Within 20 seconds of the kick off there was a difficult decision for referee Paul Kirkham to make, a long ball was flicked on by the Toros number 9 which put his strike partner in on goal but as he tried to round keeper Steve Jones he was clattered just outside the area, the ref decided on a yellow card, he thought there was a covering defender. The resulting free kick saw Jones make a top drawer save tipping the effort over the bar.
The first fifteen minutes saw the home team struggling to get their passing game together, however, they did go ahead through top scorer Craig Forsyth, the striker beat the offside trap and finished with ease. 1-0
Jones had to be at his best on a couple of occassions to thwart the dangerous Toros front men, assistant manager Gareth Ratcliffe was tearing what little hair he has left on the sidelines at his teams sloppy play. Midfielder Dan Jones had to leave the field after a late tackle caught him just below the knee, then both sides were reduced to ten men just before the interval, Zack Snape made a challenge and for some unknown reason the Toros player started throwing punches at him, Liam Pugh ran over and pushed the Toros lad away, the referee showed the visiting player a straight red and Pugh a second yellow, he had been booked five minutes earlier for a late challenge, the decision was correct by the letter of the law. Ht 1-0.
Goalscorer Lloyd Holland.
The first twenty minutes of the second half saw the visitors on top, Jones in the Saints goal made a couple of good saves to keep it at 1-0, the home side were looking dangerous on the counter attack and from one John Sly made it 2-0 with around 20 minutes to go.
The goal of the game came with twelve minutes left, central midfielder Wilf Ratcliffe let fly from 25 yards to the delight of the Saints supporters, it was the youngsters first of the season and what a goal it was.
Top scorer Forsyth got his second, the lad never stopped running throughout the ninety minutes, by now the visitors who had been more than a match for 75 minutes had dropped their heads and were further punished when midfielder Lloyd Holland netted from close range to make the final score 5-0.
The Sunday Saints top scorer, Craig Forsyth who has scored 12 goals to date.
Jenko was pleased to keep the winning run going, he said “We put in a solid performance against a well organised side, all the players did what I asked of them, Snowy made some class saves and Sam Bradley marked a very good striker out of the game, those two were our best players”.
Next up is United AFC in the league after a couple of successful cup matches.