Pre-Season Friendly

St Neots Town      3          Huntingdon Town                 0

St Neots squad for their opening pre-season friendly of the new season was limited by the fact that Cambridge United were also in pre-season action so none of their loan players were available.   However, this gave an opportunity for the full depth of the squad to be tested against neighbours Huntingdon Town.   It was a very competitive encounter with St Neots fielding two complete sides – one in each half which their visitors made just three second half substitutions.   A very even first half resulted in just a single goal from the penalty spot separating the sides but after the break the freshened St Neots line-up began to dominate and added two further goals.

Striker Joe Rider returned to St Neots after a spell at the Abbey Stadium was in early action for the home side testing visiting keeper Shaz Siranas after just four minutes and later in the half set up Arel Amu he should have done better than fire high over the bar.   Amu himself could have opened the scoring after 22 minutes after excellent work on the left touchline by Fatos Zeqiri but his late arrival in front of goal saw him just fail to connect with the low cross. Zeqiri was lively in attack and after one searing burst, he shot into the side netting from an acute angle.

St Neots were having most of the attacking play with Joe Sutton and Callum Anderson dominant in midfield, but Tabz Lunga and Pat Hyraczo performed well in defence for the visitors.Then, after 38 minutes, Lawrence Hammond was unceremoniously shoved off the ball by a visiting defender, resulting in a penalty award and this was confidently ticked away by Sutton to give his side their narrow half time advantage.

After the break St Neots continued to enjoy the better of play with striker Keiran Corner shooting wide when well placed before seeing a second effort rebound from the cross bar.  However, Huntingdon were visibly tiring and on an overlap after 65 minutes Oli Yun doubled St Neots’ advantage. Visiting keeper Siranas dived bravely at the feet of Corner three minutes later but after 71 minutes Corner was perfectly placed to add a third goal after clever play by Faruk Salimun. Visiting substitute Marko Martins squandered the visitors best chance of a consolation goal nine minutes from time.

(John Walker)