Written by Matt Sears, Wednesday 12th October 2011.
The match against Windsor Saints was heated to say the least. They were a dirty team. Which made it all the more bitter to lose against them.
I don’t want the score line to detract from the fact that St Andrews played well and were deserving of a victory.
St Andrews took an early lead through Scott Chapman when Windsor failed to defend a freekick from Andy Maliff and Scott pounced to tuck home a rebound.
The lead was short lived, and Windsor equalised with a cool finish from a through ball.
St Andrews got straight back into the game, and with some great link up play between the forwards and the midfield took the lead once again. Scott played a ball through to Andy who spotted Matt Sears in a dangerous position and played a nicely waited ball into the striker. The defenders were quickly onto him, but he managed to skip past the defender and tuck the ball into the bottom left corner. It was a great team goal which holds a lot of promise for St Andrews attacking play.
Windsor Saints got back into the game once more, again with a neat finish from the forwards, and the took the lead through a goal keeping howler just before half time.
St Andrews came out strong after the break and equalised through Max Britton, who was having a brilliant game. A freekick was put into the box, and was deflected into Max’s path, he showed his determination and stretched to get a right foot onto the ball and volleyed it into the back of the net.
St Andrews almost took the lead on 60mins when a ball was played through to Matt Sears who put the ball into the top corner with a strong finish only to be called offside. St Andrews have been plagued with poor refereeing decisions this season, so who knows If this should have been a goal.
Windsor were strong going forward and won many corners which St Andrews struggled to deal with. On the 61st minute Windsor won a penalty from a corner kick. Another contentious decision from the ref.
Keen to make up for his earlier error, keeper Martin Officer put in a magnificent save to keep out the spot kick. Diving high to his left and tipping the ball onto the post. The rebound was headed wide, as the defence were quick to act.
The score was locked until the last minutes when St Andrews failed to clear a corner and the ball fell kindly to Windsor who knocked the ball home. It was a harsh blow especially after a strong performance.
Max Britton has been voiced as Man of the Match by a number of the team.
St Andrews can take heart from the performance, and will be keen to build for there match against St Mary’s.
