St Neots boss reacts to Stratford stalemate

St Neots Town showed great spirit to come from behind twice and draw 2-2 with Stratford in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier on Saturday.

It was the proverbial game of two halves for manager Matt Clements’ men, who fell behind after just 15 minutes when William Grocott and Ben Stephens combined to set up Edwin Ahenkorah who finished from close range for his fourth goal in as many games against the Saints.

The home side hit back quickly, with former U’s player Dylan Williams having two efforts blocked before scoring a sublime goal.

It started with Stefan Broccoli beating his marker to feed in Kyron Wiltshere whose deft backheel found Williams. The forward made no mistake to score his 11th goal of the season to level the scores at the break.

Poor defending gifted Stratford their second goal of the day when Ben Stephens nipped in between Liam McDevitt and keeper Mike Emery to roll the ball into an empty net. Nabil Shariff then saw a header cannon back off the crossbar before Eli Bako blasted a volley over the crossbar from Broccoli’s cross.

Chances continued to pour Saints’ way, with Grocott’s effort being flagged offside before Williams had an effort cleared off the line.

Saints were eventually rewarded five minutes from time when Tom Wood’s knockdown was turned in by Shariff. They could have nicked it at the end too when substitute Scott Sinclair’s was deflected wide before David Bridges had has effort touched onto the crossbar by the Stratford keeper deep into injury time.

Clements was satisfied with the outcome of the game come full time. “They’re a good footballing side, Stratford, and their results have started to pick up of late,” he said.

“After their first-half performance they would have been very disappointed to not come away with at least a point. For the last 30 to 40 minutes of the game we were fantastic, though.

“Our second half was very good. We went to a 3-4-3 to try and chase the last goal, it was like the last minutes of a cup final but with 15 minutes to go.

“The first goal was the best goal you would have seen anywhere in this league on Saturday.”

The result leaves St Neots in 10th place in the Premier Division, and Clements said that the most important thing for him at this moment in time is that they stay competitive with the teams around him.

“Me and Matty [Haniver, assistant manager] know we’re competing in this mini-league from eighth to 12th, and that’s where we’re going to aim, and that would be fantastic for us,” he said.

“We always want to make sure that we’re playing good, attacking football and are competitive with the teams around us.”

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