MATCH REPORT

A beautiful autumnal day saw the arrival of St Neots Ladies to the home of the league leaders at Fortress Peele. Fresh from their double over Long Sutton last season St Neots were sitting comfortably in mid table and looking to provide their usual hard working performance against the home team. Sutton on the other hand were looking to maintain their status as league leaders and try and cure themselves of St Neots being Sutton's bogey team. The game pushed back at 1pm and straight away St Neots got onto the front foot and unsettled the home side with their play. St Neots broke quickly and overloaded the right hand side of the pitch to constantly force the home side backwards. Long Sutton for their part were not the smooth unit of last week and struggled to really come to terms with their opponents. For the first 20 minutes St Neots were clearly on top and generated a series of Penalty corners which Long Sutton defended gallantly. Lorraine Wallis in the Sutton goal was in inspired form with once such double save coming right out of the top drawer. Such was its quality that one of the umpires had begun to get his notebook from his pocket to note a goal only to have to put it away again, extraordinary stuff! Despite the St Neots pressure and the fact that Long Sutton were clearly struggling mentally the game was held at 0-0. As the half progressed Long Sutton did manage to put together some forward pressure and obtain a foothold in the game. A couple of Penalty corners were obtained which came to nothing, but then around 10 minutes to half time the breakthrough occurred. The ball found its way to skipper Leanne Woodhead some 2 yards from goal and with the goalkeeper on her she had the experience to take the pace of the shot and "trundle" it through the keepers pads and trickled it into the net. A masterful piece of ingenuity as any normal hit would clearly have hit the keeper and ran back out. Against the run of play Long Sutton found themselves in front as the half time whistle came. With the team talk completed the score should have been the spark for the home side to develop a game that was so successful the previous week, however with the start of the second half the usual service was restored and St Neots continued to threaten the home side. They continued to gain Penalty corners despite gallant defending from Sutton, but the law of averages state that they were going to score from one. Indeed early after the restart that's what they did with a crisp strike from the top of the D eluding keeper Wallis and defender Tania White. With the score 1-1 possession was a little more even with Long Sutton beginning to create more chances, but still playing without fluidity. A shot from Leah Goodley hit her own player on route to goal and skipper Woodhead did not also have the luck in the D. It continued like this until 14 minutes from time when Lyn Tancred, who had been leading the line well all day with her runs, picked up the ball just in the 25yrd line on the right hand side and weaved her way into the D and past 3 St Neots players, before moving the Keeper and driving the ball into the back of the goal for a 2-1 advantage. A jewel of a goal in what was proving to be a difficult afternoon for Sutton. St Neots would not give up and continued to play on the break now and the home side was thankful to keeper Wallis again for her awareness and goalkeeping attributes. With some 8 minutes left St Neots once again overloaded and broke down the right with their winger getting to the baseline and hitting in a cross which the St Neots striker managed to divert past the helpless Wallis, before defender White could take the ball. The away side were back in the game. With time running out Long Sutton managed to create one more chance having been awarded a penalty corner as the final whistle blew. Unfortunately Woodhead's shot was blocked by the keeper's pads and the game finished in a draw. Despite playing below their usual standards the home side secured a point and still remain unbeaten since the first game of the season. A disappointing afternoon but congratulations must go to St Neots who played exceptionally well and really took the game to Long Sutton. Sutton need to lick their wounds and come out again next week against bottom of the table Cambs Univ 3rds. Other results went some way to cushioning the result and at the end of the day Long Sutton find themselves in 2nd place 1 point behind the new leaders Spalding. Although it must be said the division it tight with 5 points separating 1st from 8th.