J'adore Paris au Soleil

This week St Neots 4 managed to get a team together to visit the Bishop pitch. Kettering being blessed with a surplus of players this week went into the game with 15 players which proved to be a decisive factor in the out come of the game.

Kettering welcomed back, Tim Plevin and Phil Rowbotham. Ben Smith stepping down from 3rds for the week did his Dad a favour. Kettering pushed back in determined fashion. Wanting to keep it tight and not fall behind to a sloppy goal or three like they saw the week before. Despite the opening exchanges being a bit cagey, both teams settled well and began to take it in turns in putting together some concerted attacks. Kettering creating more chances but unable to put the ball away. The half closed out to finish 0-0.

The eleven men of St Neots began to visibly tire in the second half. Kettering regrouped and redoubled their efforts. Ben Smith putting in a fine display down the right playing as a wing back always looking to drive forward and cross the ball into the box. Ludwig also put in a fine display in midfield being full of running and making telling passes into the opposition D. St neots found themselves pinned into their own half making only sporadic forays past the half way line.

The Kettering pressure finally paid off, when finally a hard fast ball from Ludwig split the St Neots defence to be picked up by Lee Paris who beat the keeper with aplomb. His 10th of the season in his six starts. His partner in crime, Shaun Curtis had a quiet game on the scoring front but was contributing with some dynamic play up front. On one occasion he chased down a long ball in the D only to be clattered from behind by the keeper. The sidelines called for a penalty flick, the umpires were undecided but finally settled on a long corner being given. In the end all Shaun received was a severely bruised hip.

With 20 minutes remaining, the brains trust on the sidelines decided to shake up the formation. This resulted in Finn Smith coming on the right wing. He pace and power terrified the St Neots defence. Again he was chasing down lost causes, sprinting around the opposition with regularity. The poor St Neots left back resorted to playing football to try and stop being beaten. With this injection of pace, the second goal was surely to come. And it did, fittingly Finn was the provider with a telling pass from the right of the D to find Mike Tanser in space at the top. Who struck it low into the bottom left corner leaving the keeper floundering.

The home side decided that a 2-0 scoreline was sufficient and held on to close out the match. All of the players today put in a lot of hard work and played with passion and pride. All are worthy of a mention and should be proud of the team perfmormance.

Next week, the 4's do not have a league match so will have to wait to continue their run of form with a Home match against Wisbech 4's.