Page 16 - Cheltenham Saracens sample

Sarries stay in promotion hunt

Stonehouse Town 0, Cheltenham Saracens 3

A great away win for Cheltenham Saracens at Old Ends Lane, home of
Stonehouse Town FC.
We started our attack early, the 4th minute saw a header from Harlie Price hit
the crossbar.
Minutes later, Adam Loveridge had a shot deflect over the bar after a strong
Paul Holmes, who was soon forced off with an injury, managed to cross the ball
to him in the box.
Stonehouse, who struggled to find the target for most of the match, had a
chance open up when a rebounded block by Liam Brignull found its way to them
just outside the box, but the shot went over the crossbar.
But the opener came for us in the 21st minute when Harlie Price met a deep
cross, ran with the ball at his feet before he managed to chip it around
Stonehouse’s Keeper William Pedrick. It was a difficult shot from a tight angle
but he managed to bury it into the bottom corner of the goal with ease.
And, just 5 minutes later, Jordan Bryan almost mirrored Price’s goal exactly
when he deftly nudged the ball past Pedrick and fired it into the bottom right
corner to put us 2-0 up.
It looked as though Stonehouse’s Tom Palmer had managed to get one back
in the 35th minute, but he only found the side netting.
Our last chance of the half came when Loveridge set up a great chance for
Price, who was unmarked and had plenty of space to run into, but this time
Pedrick managed to save his effort.
The second half started with a penalty for Sarries after Bryan was brought
down clumsily in the box. Loveridge stood up to take it and was just inches from
scoring when he hit the crossbar - Price was quick to fire in a shot from the
rebound but Pedrick was already down to meet it.
In the 61st minute, seemingly from nothing, Josh Goodhall absolutely fired a
long range shot from outside the box past Stonehouse’s Keeper to put us a
comfortable 3-0 up.
Stonehouse did manage to break through our defence in the 63rd minute, but
they soon strayed offside and their shot missed the target anyway.
15 minutes later, Stonehouse had a great chance to pull 1 back after they
were given a free kick just outside the box after it was (harshly, in my opinion)
deemed that Bryan handled the ball. Rodrigo Carvalho stepped up to take it and
managed to chip it up and over the wall before he forced a save from our ever
dependable Nick Jones, who pushed it out for a corner. Nothing came from it.
The final minutes ticked by without any real incident and, not long after Bryan
had a shot saved, the final whistle blew to end the match and a brilliant 3-0 win
for the Sarries.
Great performance, lads - now on to a series of 4 home matches in the coming
weeks.

Match report by Jemma Maeve