The Saints beat league leaders Aberystwyth Reserves tonight under the lights at Forest Road.
Once again the Saints got off to a quick start and put pressure on the visiting sides back four, their two centre backs struggled to cope with Kevin Jones’ strength which enabled him to lay balls off to the oncoming Saints midfield, Gav Williams seemed to find acres of space down the left and he combined well with Phil Davies on several occassions last ditch tackles stopped Williams getting in on goal. Jonathon Hartwell in the Aber goal made an excellent save from striker Josh Wisniewski , the breakthrough came around 15 minutes, Wisniewski started the move by passing the ball out wide left to Williams who beat the fullback and crossed into the box which was hit first time by Gareth Jenkins but again Hatwell saved with the ball going out to the right which Wisniewski chased and crossed straight back in to the box for Jenkins to head into the corner of the net for 1-0.
Aber came more into the game after 25 minutes and Steve Price had his first save to make by diving at the feet of their striker after good work on the left by Tom Bowen the ball going out for a corner. Sam Powell and Stu Davies stopped them playing their quick passing game by closing them down at every opportunity and with the back 3 of Preece, Goodwin and Davies winning everything in the air the visitors struggled to create any other goal scoring chances in the first period.
The Saints doubled their lead in the 38th minute when again Wisnieski played the ball out wide left to Williams and his first time cross was met by striker Jones who blasted the ball into the net from 10 yards out for 2-0 which was the score when the referee blew for half time. ht 2-0.
The first ten minutes of the second half were very close until the Saints overplayed the ball in midfield on 55 minutes and a quick throughball saw Aber’s striker in on goal his shot just beating the diving Price to make it 2-1.
The Saints then had a nervy 10 minute spell but regrouped and soon got back on top, Tom Weaver who was having another good game behind the front two went close with a shot from the edge of the box. On 68 minutes the Saints were awarded a corner which Kevin Jones took and he sent a deep cross towards the back post which was headed cleverly back across goal by Weaver, the quickest person to react was Wisniewski who finished from 6 yards to the delight of his team mates to make it 3-1.
The Saints were never really troubled after this due to the work rate of the team especially Powell who seemed to be everywhere in the second half and Jones who was still causing the Aber back 4 headaches with his hold up play and lay offs. The referee blew up for fulltime with the score at 3-1 for a fully deserved victory for the homeside.
A good 3 points earned on an excellent pitch and credit must go to groundsman Cliff Havard and also Kevin Jones who has been spiking it on a regular basis, the Aber management team were full of compliments about the playing surface.
In my opinion a good team performance all round, I spoke with Chris and Vernon after about the man of the match and they chose Kevin Jones but said it was a very difficult one as Sam Powell had pushed him all the way after covering every blade of grass.
Team- Steve Price, Steve Goodwin, Chris Preece(c), Phil Davies, Gareth Jenkins(Josh Davies), Gavin Williams, Stuart Davies(Wes Evans), Sam Powell, Tom Weaver, Kevin Jones, Josh Wisniewski(Will Goodwin) unused subs Tom Wikes, Ian Jones.