Guildford Saints 5 Guildford City Lions 2

A great win for the boys today as they beat our local rivals at Guildford City. In a match we always knew was going to "difficult" the boys put in an excellent performance and a delighted Kevin had this to say afterwards;

"The boys were lucky with the weather as the later kick off meant that the heavy rain had abated and we only had the wind to contend with. Saints kicked off playing with the wind and within five minutes we had gone ahead with a free flowing move which Tom finished with a emphatic shot into the roof off the net. Ten minutes later and it was 2-0 with Tom and Julien combining to "lay it on a plate" for Alex M to finish off. We then seemed to relax a bit too much and City hit the post and Josh pulled off a couple of smart saves. Saying that we should have increased our lead but instead of taking the shots on we tried to walk it in too often. Our defense though was fantastic with Matt, Ben and Chris playing extremely well. Mike D was having a good game and Tom was extremely lively up front.

Second half and with Nathan and Ollie coming on we continued to take the game to City, but it was City who pulled a goal back when Ben, in attempting to clear a corner, flicked a header passed Josh. Still we surged forward and, with Ross receiving treatment for a nose bleed, Matt stepped up and, against the wind, buried a free kick into the roof of the net. City came back at us strongly and again hit the post and then weak defending allowed a City forward to fire past Josh for 3-2. City looked to have their tails up but Tom had other ideas as he raced up field and from a narrow angle scorched a shot past the 'keeper. Things started to get a little fractious with City players diving and their crowd continually disputing the referees decisions but the boys stayed focused and eventually, from a Matt Burton corner, the ball was turned into his own net by a City player to give a final score of 5-2.

There were some great performances today from a number of lads. Josh, Ben, Chris, Matt, Mike, Tom and Connor all caught the eye and our football at times was a joy to behold. When we play like this there are not many teams that can live with us. Unfortunately the match was soured for me by the actions of the City assistant manager who aggressively accosted me as I left the field to walk over to another game insisting that the referee was "biased" and "a cheat" and that we had "taken the mickey" out of his players. His tone when he said "you wait 'til you come to our place" was extremely aggressive and concerning but is only what we have come to expect from this particular City team over the years. Fortunately as a team we rose above this intimidatory behaviour today and we beat City by playing the better football and by taking the chances when they arose."

Man of the Match - Tom Richards