GCE HIRE PLANT UNITED COUNTIES LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION SOUTH
ST NEOTS TOWN 8 GODMANCHESTER ROVERS 2
St Neots hit top form to demolish visiting Godmanchester with a polished display of finishing which included six first half goals. The visitors had the questionable reward of a goal in each half but may have got off lightly had the home side not lost both central defenders in a topsy-turvy first half. It was the fourth time that St Neots had notched eight goals or more in a league match since moving to the Premier Plus St.adium. With Michael Amaeshike and Murphy Culkin both unavailable, Dammy Nickels and Nathan George came back into the side – the latter after injury, but first half injuries to George and Charlie Bowen left St Neots unbalanced in defence but still managed to double their goals tally with a patched-up back line. Man of the match Rhys Thorpe took over as the sides’ leading scorer as he took his personal goals tally to fourteen in twenty starts with the sides’ first league hat trick of the season. Without a midweek match there will be time for the injured players to recover for another home league date next week, when in-form Hinckley are the opposition for their first ever visit to St Neots.
The first fifteen minutes saw Godmanchester start brightly without testing the home keeper. St Neots had two early openings with Kieran Barnes volleying over the bar before seeing a second net-bound effort blocked by the legs of the visiting keeper. Then after 16 minutes St Neots went ahead when Rhys Thorpe took full advantage of a defensive error to open the scoring. Two minutes later the score was doubled when a long throw by Dammy Nickels was headed on by Thorpe for Connor Furlong to apply the finishing touch and it was three goals in seven minutes when a long clearance from home goalkeeper James Goff was allowed to bounce between two defenders and the lively Kieran Barnes went around the visiting keeper to finish from a narrow angle. After 27 minutes it was 4-0 when Thorpe headed a Furlong cross back from the far post for Sam Willis to score his third league goal of the season but either side of this goal St Neots lost both central defenders to injury.
In the reshaped home defence skipper Robbie Parker and the versatile Willis formed an unlikely central pairing and in the reshuffle Robbie Sutherland and Danny Baulk came on as substitutes. Godmanchester took advantage of the temporary reshuffle as Dan Brown pulled back a goal from a corner but in sixty seconds just before the break, St Neots re-established their grip on the match by adding two further goals – the first from substitute Danny Baulk and the second from Rhys Thorpe set up by Furlong.
Godmanchester began the second half well with Lewis Arber converting a Declan Rogers free kick to make the score 6-2 but any thoughts of a visiting comeback was snuffed out as St Neots buckled down. Williams was replaced by Lamin Jammeh and St Neots slowed the pace and restricted the visiting side to shooting from distance. Goalmouth action became restricted although St Neots dominated possession although Furlong did test the visiting keeper. With fifteen minutes remaining Rhys Thorpe completed a well-deserved hat trick again with the assistance of Furlong, and substitute Marley Pitts-Wallace-Luke scored his first St Neots goal in the final minute of normal time to complete the 8-2 rout.
Today’s Saints Supporters’ Man of the Match, in association with The Greystones Public House, Sawtry – RHYS THORPE
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