The Saints Reserves picked up another three points and moved to the top of the Hereford Div 1 Table.
The first half was very even with a youthful energetic Bartestree keen to break on the counter attack with pace but found themselves up against the formidable pairing of Alex Winston and Liam Pugh in the centre of the Saints defence. Stuart Davies and Garry Keeble were working overtime in the middle of the park to break up the play, Davies coming close to scoring for the Saints on a couple of occasions but found the visiting keeper in top form. Bartestree opened the scoring mid-way through the first half when a midfielders shot went in via the post. ht 0-1.
The Saints pushed on in the second period but were struggling to break down a stubborn defence, the away keeper made several good saves, one effort was tipped over the bar with him at full stretch to deny the home side. Manager Andrew Harris made a double substitution bringing on Jacko Thomas and Graeme Keeble, he also pushed Winston upfront later in the game with 10 to go. The Saints were well on top and with around 6 minutes to go they were awarded a free kick out wide right around 30 yards out, Graeme Keeble hit a cracking free kick which the keeper could on push up into the top corner of the net 1-1. Four minutes later the referee awarded a penalty when a shot from the edge of the box was adjudged to have hit a Bartestree players hand, Graeme Keeble made no mistake from 12 yards sending the keeper the wrong way and giving The Saints a 2-1 victory on the day.
A hard victory for The Reserves, with 10 minutes to go I don’t think anybody in the ground they were going to get a point never mind take all three. Stu Davies had another good game in midfield but the two centre backs were excellent all game.
One more win H and you’ll have 6 W’s on the form guide, keep it going lads.
Team- R.Sullivan, C.Bounds, A.Winston(c), L.Pugh, M.Ward, B.Walsh(G.B.Keeble), S.Davies, G.Keeble, T.Wilks(T.Johnson), W.Goodwin(J.Thomas) O.Cooke.