Padiham Saints J.F.C

A really great game at the Fenny today saw 2 teams battle out a 1 a piece draw.
Choosing to kick downhill in the 1st half saw the Saints pile on the pressure with several shots stinging their goalkeepers hands, also credit to their defence blocked our shots also.
The deadlock was broken with a fine Luke Murray strike from the edge of the box. Still more chances as Aaron struck a beauty of a freekick, which saw their keeper palm away, only for Jake to narrowly hit over the bar.
Lack of talking at the back meant 3 Saints tackling each other from a throw in meant the ball squeaking out to 1 of their forwards to make it 1-1.
In the 2nd half going uphill, with the sun in our eyes meant that it was going to be tough, but credit to the lads who battled well and made sure that the opposition didnt score.
MOM was Max Robinson, who pulled off some good saves.
This means now weve got our 1st point since September, which was a win against Crown Paints Green.
Our last 4 games have seen a remarkable upturn in form, scoring 5 goals and more importantly only conceding 8. Bearing in mind our goal difference at the moment stands at -29. The most impressive is in the last 2 matches we have only conceded 2 goals.

GREAT EFFORT>

Well done lads, sounds like you had a good game that with a little more luck could you could have nicked all three points.
Keep it going.

well done lads and keep up the good work Darren

aidy

A Great game of football today again... Lots of fighting spirit from the boys to gain our first draw of the season... They are getting there as Darren has said not much in the games which shows a great improvement... Just like to say thankyou to Darren for all he does for the boys...

You're spot on there Claire, sometimes it's about how much better you're getting rather than just winning. Of course all teams like and want to win but if you've bettered your performance in whatever measure you care to use then you've won.

Nice to see Darren getting aplause and I fully agree with you. Without the Saints coach's the club just couldn't exist. They do a great job at the expense of their time and fully deserve a mention now and again.

Well done to all of them.

To say the lads deserved something for the way they've been playing recently is a huge understatement. It's difficult to convey to someone who hasn't seen the games but they've just been so unlucky on numerous occasions and today it was a relief as much as anything not to concede a late winner deflected off the refs backside or something!

I thought they were all excellent today and could have been 4-1 at half time to us. It was tough going in the second half against the sun slope and wind but the fact that we didn't concede shows how well the boys have been defending of late and that goes to the midfield as well for not letting much through and getting back to cover.

As Darren said my lad Max was given Man of the Match in goals but whilst I was really pleased with how he played in terms of his handling, talking, positioning and decision making he didn't really have a proper save to make. In fact his best save was actually on their goal when he got out well to block it only for it to run (typically) straight to their only other player in the box.

Certainly their keeper made more saves including a very good late one to keep out Matty which would have been even better if that had gone in.

It was an entertaining game though as Darren says and credit to their team who were a good set of lads and their parents were also good in praising OUR players as well.

I'd also like to echo Claire's comments and thanks about the job Darren is doing!

Well done today, like I said last week I knew a result was coming. Keep up the hard work.