The Saints lost 3-4 today against Machynlleth FC in an end to end game.
Playing down the slope on our second pitch the visitors started much stronger than the Saints and in the 5th minute a shot from the edge of the area clipped the bar, just a couple of minutes later keeper Tom Lewis made a great save diving at full stretch he somehow managed to tip a goal bound effort over the bar. Machynlleth’s pressure finally told when they went 0-1 up after 16 minutes, Lewis had no chance with that one.
We struggled for most of the half to get into the game, the visitors had a couple more efforts but again Lewis stopped them, with ten minutes to half time we had a succession of corners, on two occassions we won the header and beat the keeper but the visitors had a man on the line to clear it. On the stroke of half time the Saints made it 1-1 with a rather bizzare goal, Brendan Hackett had gone on a mazy run and crossed into the box, the ball was cleared but we won it back and it was chipped back into Hackett who looked yards offside so everyone stopped except Hackett, he crossed to top scorer Rob McNamara who tapped it in to the empty from close range. 1-1. The Macynlleth linesman to his credit gave the goal, he must have seen something I didn’t because it did look offside from where I was. Ht 1-1.
Biggs and Hackett againts Machynlleth.
Tom Lewis our man of the match.
The birthday boy netted a brace.
The second half started similar to the first, the visitors were the better side for the first 20 minutes, in the 52nd minute Richie Evans lobbed Lewis from an acute angle to make it 1-2, Evans had been a thorn in the Saints side all game, just five minutes later it looked all over as the visitors went 1-3 up.
Another bizzare goal brought the game into life, from a long Lewis goal kick the Machynlleth full back headed backwards, the ball hit Hackett which then went past the stranded goalkeeper and rolled into the net. 2-3.
From this moment on the Saints were piling bodies forward and had chance after chance, Phil Davies was very dominant down the left with his runs and aerial ability. The equaliser came with 15 mins to go and what a goal it was, McNamara received the ball in the box, chipped it over the centre half spun and smashed it in very Bergkampesque! 3-3.
It was all the Saints now and there looked like only one winner with wave after wave of attacks, to Mach credit they kept us on our toes when Evans broke twice on the counter attack and Lewis again had to pull of two great saves to deny the visitors. McNamara came very close to his hat-trick but his header went inches over the bar with the keeper stranded and that’s when it all went horribly wrong, the visitors cleared their lines again and the ball fell to Evans on the right, the tricky winger cut inside past two Saints defenders and hit a left shot past the diving Lewis to win it in the dying minutes. Ft 3-4.
I thought the first half was quite boring to watch, the pitch didn’t help, there had been a junior game on there in the morning so it was very bobbly, however, the second half more than made up for it, it was end to end and it could have been 8-8. Machynlleth are very quick in attack and at 3-3 we did pile forward looking for that winner when maybe we could have played a bit more safe. Tom Lewis in our goal made some great one on one saves so he gets my man of the match, Phil Davies was our best outfield player, the difference between the two teams was the cartwheeling champion of Machynlleth 2014 Richie Evans, not a bad player him!