The Saints won 3-2 at Woofferton in a very physical encounter.
The first half was mainly controlled by Woofferton but they were limited to the number of chances they had. The Saints cause wasn’t helped when Gavin Williams limped off after 5 minutes of the kick off with a groin injury. Ian Jones in the Saints goal made a brilliant save after 17 minutes to deny the home side the lead, the Saints then won a corner on 20 minutes and Ben Bevan laid it back to the waiting Rob Snedden who hit an early contender for goal of the season. Hay’s back three of Mike Havard, Josh Davies and Phil Davies were excellent in defending Jone’s goal limiting the home side to long range efforts. HT 0-1.
The second half saw the Saints get on top with Sam Powell and Skipper Chris Preece taking control of the centre of the park, Steve Goodwin and Ben Bevan were also causing problems on the wings, Bevan going close on goal with an overhead kick. It was against the run of play that Woofferton equalised after 65 minutes. The game then started to get very physical with the home side putting in a few bone crunching tackles. It was Bevan who regained the lead for the Saints after a perfectly weighted throughball from Snedden, Bevan scored after staying on his feet when it would of been easier to go down for a penalty, that’s 4 goals from 4 games for the new signing. Youngster John Daw sealed the win after a long clearance from keeper Jones, Daw controlled the ball and skipped around the fullback and he also stayed on his feet while being hacked at by the centre half , Daw tucked the ball away past the advancing to keeper to put the Saints 3-1 up. Woofferton did pull another goal back on the stroke of fulltime and when the Saints kicked off for the restart the referee blew up for fulltime.
This was the Saints toughest match during pre season so far, they were a big side who were very physical on times, they were also a decent footballing side hence them being the current champions of the Hereford Premier league. I thought our side battled very well, the back three of Mike, Phil and Josh along wth keeper Ian Jones were outstanding all game, youngsters Steve, Jake and John did really well tonight and didn’t hide from the physical challenge especially Steve who was called on after 5 minutes due to the injury to Gavin. My man of the match though would have to be captain Chris Preece for his all round performance in helping out his defence and backing up the strikers when needed.