Match Report By Bryan McVey & Jamie Graham

The Saints were comprehensively dumped out of the Soccer Pools Social Cup by Forrestfield United at Hartfield Park . An all round miserable day for the Saints was exacerbated by a serious knee injury to Mika Jones mid-way through the second half, which will sideline him for at least a month.

The game got off to quick start with Forrestfield having the ball in the net within 20 seconds of the kick off. First gamer Valsecchi was caught out standing on his line, leaving the speedy united winger with plenty of time and space to slot the ball home.

A few minutes later the Saints went further behind when their goalkeeper attempted to play the ball to Lee Wilkinson across the face of goal from a goal kick which was read by the Forrestfield striker who nipped in with a first time strike to make it 2-0 after five minutes on the clock.

After this shaky start the Saints lads gathered themselves and started to play some decent football, Dan Doody and Jarreth Tottman were running the show in centre midfield with the wingers making good runs and the forwards getting in to good spaces. The defence also shored up as well with Ryan Holdsworth on top form.

The Saints first real chance fell to McVey as a long cross ball was played by Tottman over the top of all the defenders and bounced up nicely in front of him, only for him to fire over the bar, and be judged offside.

The Saints then won a corner kick thanks to a brave header form Tottman. From the corner the ball bounced out of the box and was collected by Troy Richards who took the ball past 2 defenders and proceeded to hone in on goal. As the Forrestfield defenders stood off waiting for a cut back Troy calmly slotted the ball past the Forrestfield keeper at his near post.

The Saints started the second half strongly, with Doody, T. Richards and Tottman firing in plenty of shots but the United keeper pulled off a couple of good saves to deny them, whilst the others flew past the upright.

Despite the strong start to the second half, Forrestfield opened the floodgates with five second half goals starting at the 58 minute mark.

Saints defender Mika Jones was stretchered off after a collision with the Forrestfield striker which saw the hosts record their fifth goal, while Jones faces a stint on the treatment table.

Martyn Potter was then unlucky not to get a shot away as he juggled the ball on his head, knees and feet past 3 defenders only to see the ball taken off his foot as he was about to pull the trigger.

Forrestfield then went on to bag another two goals, with the Saints looking tired, to all but settle the match.

The Saints weren’t done yet though with Troy Richards scoring arguably the best goal of the game with a delightful curled shot over the Forrestfield keeper. Richards collected the ball near the centre circle, rounded two defenders and had a shot from 22 yards which dipped over the united keeper and into the top corner.

April 8, 2006