BLAST FROM THE PAST

Saturday 14th August 2018

Southern League Premier Division

St Neots Town 2 Bedworth United 1

Taylor Parr was the St Neots matchwinner when he scored from a Luke Knight corner eight minutes into the second half of a balanced contest. It was only his fifth goal for St Neots on his ninety-third appearance, but it had an unusual air of deja-vu because on 29th October 2016 he scored the winning goal in a 3-2 FA Trophy victory at Bedworth. The welcome three points was no less than St Neots deserved because they dominated possession at times and created more chances than their visitors. However, Manager Matt Clements will probably view his side as work in progress because apart from not converting chances their defense lost a number of aerial battles – an area in which they excelled last season. Nevertheless, it was an improved performance from the opening day, but they had teenage goalkeeper Finlay Iron to thank for some excellent timely saves. Next it is a first ever league meeting with Rushall Olympic at the Premier Plus Stadium on Saturday. The match began at breakneck pace with Lewis Irwin getting behind the visiting defense to see a narrow-angled shot comfortably saved but Bedworth produced an early assault on the St Neots goal in which Finlay Iron produced two close range instinctive saves from close range shots with his defense in disarray after just four minutes. St Neots then took the lead after just eight minutes when Claudio Ofosu picked up the ball wide on the left and cut in beating his marker to unleash a low right foot shot into the far corner of the goal – his first ever league goal for St Neots.At the other end Iron had to be alert to turn a rising Luke Rowe free kick over his cross bar and as play continued end-to-end a long throw by Johnny Herd was headed goalward by Taylor Parr but Thomas Sharpe cleared off the line with his keeper stranded. Another searching run by Ofosu set up Irwin, but his volley was just too high. St Neots seemed to be arriving at half time with a deserved advantage but with two minutes to go, Dan Olaniran appeared to be shepherding Ryan Baldwin away from goal when the Bedworth player went to ground under a slight looking challenge and the Referee awarded a penalty kick converted by visiting skipper Alexander Troke so the sides went to the interval on terms.