Premier Division

St Neots Town  0    Desborough Town  1

Tuesday, 27 November 2007

After losing on their last seven Rowley Park visits Desborough came out on top on this occasion as two clubs chasing Premier honours produced a low key match.

Saints defender Mark Burrows headed home a Mark Franklin free kick nine minutes in but was ruled offside, while St Neots continued to look the more dangerous side. They were restricted to long range efforts for the most part though with Ivan Finch and Barrington Belgrave both testing Ar Tarn keeper Michael Evans from distance.

Finch was narrowly too high with another long range effort while Desborough's most notable move off the half saw an astute Tom Mills pass play in Michael Byrne whose flick was narrowly wide.

Towards the interval home appeals for a penalty were waved away after Belgrave appeared to be brought down.

Early in the second half Ryan Francis turned smartly to send a sizzling cross shot across goal, but it was Desborough who broke the lead with a bizarre opener after 66 minutes. Jamie Gilsenan appeared to overhit his free kick into the box but denutant keeper Ryan Rayner appeared distracted by Michael Byrne's run across him and the ball found its way into the net.

Thereafter Desborough looked dangerous on the break with Mike Sneddon twice close to further goals, Byrne thwarted by Rayner's legs and in the dying seconds a long goal kick by Michael Evans sent Sneddon clear only for his lob to go wide of the target.

St Neots: Ryan Rayner, Dave Fisk (Ashley Deverell), Mark Barry (Arin Fehmi), Kevin Ashby,Mark Burrows, Steve Dogbe, Ivan Finch, Danny Marlow, Mark Franklin, Barrington Belgrave, Ryan Francis (Steve Kuhne).

Desborough: Michael Evans, Chris Logan, Danny Pownall, Paul Malone, Ben Armstrong, Michael Keall (Joe Cossey), Jamie O'Neill, Tom Mills, Michael Byrne, Mike Sneddon, Jamie Gilsenan.