The Saints came away from Latham Park tonight with a point after their first league draw of the season, goals by Gavin Williams and Kevin Jones secured the point.
The Saints were on the back foot from the off and within four minutes found themselves 1-0 down after a ball over the top saw striker Stu Fraser nip infront of keeper Steve Price and round him to open the scoring.
More pressure followed but good defending and a couple of Price blocks kept the score at 1-0, manager Chris Baynton changed the formation to 4 4 2 and within minutes the Saints had two very good goalscoring opportunities, firstly Kevin Jones was put through on goal but foiled after an excellent save from the home keeper, then his strike partner Will Goodwins’ shot was well saved, next it was Goodwins elder brother Steve who went close with a lob which just went over the crossbar with the keeper in no man’s land.
There were more chances at either end and in reality it could of been 4-4 when the referee blew up for half time, Newtown had the better of the possession but the Saints had the better of the clear cut chances. ht 1-0.
Within a minute of the restart a long rang effort which had goal written all over it was somehow tipped around the post by a fully stretched diving Price in the visiors goal, the save seemed to lift the Saints and from this moment on they took total control of the game, the outstanding Phil Davies and team mate Gav Williams were in tandem causing problems raiding down the left, Newtown found themselves dropping deeper and deeper to combat the onslaught, chances were saved and missed by Jones, Williams, Goodwin and Davies whose right foot effort just went wide after another good move down the left.
The equaliser came around the hour mark, a ball was played into Jones’ feet from midfielder Steve Goodwin, Jones spun his marker and played a ball out to the edge of the box which the advancing Williams hit first time for a beaut of a goal making it 1-1.
With 20 minutes to go Baynton brought on the experienced Ben Bevan and within two minutes it paid dividends, Bevan received the ball 25 yards out turned and ran at the defence and then played a throughball to the unmarked Jones who cooley finished with his left foot to make it 1-2.
With ten minutes to go the hard working Stu Davies won the ball on the edge of the Newtown box after they overplayed it, Davies ran through and shot but his effort went inches wide. The Saints were to rue their missed chances after a long punt from the back was misjudged by Wes Evans and Chris Preece who got in each others way going for the same ball, it fell to Fraser who proor to this they had kept quiet most of the night, the striker finishing well from 10 yards for 2-2.
The last five minutes were quiet with no more chances to report and the referee blew up for full time with the score at 2-2.
A point gained or two lost is the question? I think it shows how well we’re playing at the moment as most of the team were very disappointed to only come away with a point after all the chances we had throughout the game.
There were a lot of good performers tonight, Steve Goodwin was excellent especially in the second half, Gav Williams once again had a good game as did Wes Evans, but the gaffers choice for man of the match is defender Phil Davies.
Team- Steve Price, Gareth Jenkins(Tom Wilkes), Chris Preece(c), Wes Evans, Phil Davies, Gavin Williams, Stuart Davies, Tom Weaver(Josh Davies), Kevin Jones, Will Goodwin(Ben Bevan).