Smith brace reignites Saints’ title challenge

Having won the away fixture 4-1 just over a week ago, Saints were in confident mood, attacking right from the kick-off. After just two minutes, Smith beat the Pilkington offside trap, but dragged his shot weakly across the goal.

Then, a Brad Rees cross was met at the far post by Smith, who tried to set up Tunde Ajibade, but the ball was cleared by the visitors’ defence

Pilkington came close to scoring in the 31st minute when keeper Matt Oliver failed to collect the ball and Charlie Neale had to clear off the line. Back came Saints with Neil Stacey flicking the ball on to Jack Taylor, whose cross just eluded Smith.

A foul by Scott Thomas on Oliver on the stroke of half-time saw Pilkington reduced to ten men and the teams went in at the break all square.

Four minutes into the second half, Saints had another chance to take the lead when Taylor set up Ajibade, who put his shot over.

Pilkington were reduced to nine in the 72nd minute when Marcus King was sent off for deliberately handling on the line, but more drama was to follow as Taylor’s spot-kick was saved by Neil Leech and the Saints defender failed to put away the rebound.

Saints made their numerical superiority tell a minute later when Taylor crossed to the far post for Smith to head home.

Leech kept Pilkington in the game with a good save before pushing a long shot from Marc Passey away for a corner.

But Smith wrapped up the points when converting another Taylor cross with two minutes to go.

On Saturday, Saints went down by the only goal of the match to Continental Star in front of the day’s largest crowd.

With both teams looking to put some daylight between themselves and the rest of the title contenders, this was a lively encounter and, although Saints had the better of the first half, creating a number of good chances, the match was settled in Star’s favour by a single goal from Ricardo Reid in the 66th minute.

For the first time since October, the Saints attack, the most potent in the league, failed to find the net, with Simeon Smith having a number of good chances that, on other days, he would have put away.

The deciding goal started from a Saints corner, with Reid firing low into bottom right-hand corner after a swift counter.

The visitors were buoyed by the goal, growing in belief and, although manager Luke Fogarty sent on Andy Millan and Oli Manoochehri to boost the attack, Saints efforts came to nothing.

To add to their misery, captain Quentin Townsend was given a straight red ten minutes from the end after clattering into a Star player and will now miss three matches.

Despite the defeat, Fogarty was full of praise for his players, saying: “It was a massive effort from everyone, but things just didn’t go our way.”

“We got caught on the break and lacked a bit of composure after the goal, having put in so much effort to that point. It didn’t help being reduced to ten men through a harsh sending off.”

Tomorrow, Saints play their third home match in a row when Bolehall Swifts are the visitors to Banbury Road (3pm).