Southam forced to dig deep to beat Cadbury

SOUTHAM UNITED 3 CADBURY ATHLETIC 2

Saints maintained their promotion push with a hard-fought New Year’s Eve win over Cadbury Athletic which took them into second place behind Bolehall Swifts, writes David Hucker.

Manager Luke Fogarty was pleased with the result, but conceded that Saints had made harder work of it than expected.

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“We went 2-0 up early on and thought that it would be another easy win,” said Fogarty. “But, even though Cadbury levelled, we had the better of the second half and I always thought that our quality would see us through.”

Fogarty was missing captain John Blunsom and striker Andy Millan through suspension and the unavailable Ross Jackson, but introduced the experienced Howard Forinton, who has joined on loan from Daventry Town in a bid to get back to full fitness after injury.

Saints applied pressure right from the kick-off and took the lead after just two minutes. Jack Taylor set up James Hardie, whose cross from the left was met by Luke Church and, although Shaun Hayes in the Cadbury goal saved his first effort, Church got up from the floor to tap into the empty net.

Taylor made it 2-0 in the tenth minute, confidently scoring from the penalty spot after a low cross from Brad Rees was handled by a defender.

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Cadbury got one back just four minutes later when the home defence went to sleep at a quickly taken free-kick, and Adrian Parkes scored at the second time of asking after Matt Oliver had saved his first effort.

Marc Passey finished off a good run with a shot that went just wide before Oliver made a great save to keep the Saints’ lead intact.

However, Stuart Butcher levelled the scores four minutes before the interval with a long-range effort into the top corner which left the match nicely balanced.

Oli Manoochehri restored Saints’ advantage early in the second half, scoring from a tight angle.

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But, the match was far from over as Cadbury were denied another equaliser, first by a late saving tackle from Charlie Neale and then by a post.

As Saints clung on to their slender lead, Butcher also went close to snatching a draw.

Tomorrow, Saints travel to Earlswood Town looking to avenge a 2-1 home defeat at the beginning of December.

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