The Saints progressed to the 4th round of the HFA Burghill Cup this afternoon with a close 2-1 victory at a bumpy and sticky Widemarsh Common. Goals from Mike Price and Gareth Pugh in the first half proved enough for the team to progress.
Once again there was improvement with the youngsters really showing a willingness to work hard and you can see they are gaining in confidence. Conditions were a bit testing with the bobbly pitch making it difficult to get hold of the ball. The Saints though used Paul and Troys strength up front to hold the ball up and then join in. Gareth Pugh was very prominent in the first half making a number of surging runs from his central position. It was from one of these runs which saw him go clear on the right side of the box, after good work from Troy. He showed real poise to pick out Psycho at the far post who made no mistake from close range. The Saints continued to show some good flashes of football with Paul Ward Willis doing well on several occasions by holding the ball up and bringing suppporting players in to the game.
The home side then had a spell where they were on top however, the back three of Trill, Millsy and Havo did ever so well to keep the home side out. Millsy in particular did ever so well to clear up and over the bar to prevent a certain goal. This period of pressure seemed to buoy the Saints though as they then had there best period of the game when the home side had to clear off the line from a Havo header and Psycho having another chance at the far post. The home side keeper also made a really good save from a good Pughy shot. James Jones, making his full debut on the left, was proving to be a very competent player and he hit a beauty of a cross but unfortunaetly there was no one there to apply the finishing touch.
The Saints were then struck with a sucker punch when folllowing an attack they were caught short at the back and there forward outpaced the defence to run through and easily beat Birchy in the Saints goal.
The Saints reply was superb with them pushing forward again and looking dangerous on a couple of occasions. They got their reward when Pughy won the ball out on the left and hit a ball in to the middle, probably looking for the