Crusaders share the spoils at St Neots

....and although we remained in 5th position, the point was enough to keep St Neots in a challenging position, right on our heels. Nevertheless this was a great effort on our part, with top scorer Mark Draycott best man at Matt Collins’ brothers wedding, so that Collins was also missing, whilst Alan O’Brien failed to recover from last week’s injury to leave the squad gravely depleted . The return of Jon Boardman after a long absence with a back injury was a tremendous boost, however, and he and Matt Day combined in that defensive partnership which has served us so well in the past.
A chilly breeze swept across the pitch throughout the game, but the playing surface was in excellent condition in this impressive stadium at Rowley Park and a crowd of over 350 were given good value for money by two evenly matched sides, perhaps St Neots had more of the game territorially, but we probably had the better chances and might even have gained all three points to keep the play-off battle in our favour.
As it turned out, despite this impressive performance, our task in the play-off battle became even harder. We have a blank day on Saturday when we were scheduled to entertain Hereford United, whilst St Neots are level on points with us, Redditch are a point behind and Cirencester are another point further adrift, and all 3 are in action on that day, playing their game in hand. However, there is still everything to play for, Bobby and the players are positive and will have the support of everyone in these final weeks of the season as we face another play-off battle. To be in this position in the Southern Premier Division is beyond our wildest dreams when we consider the resources of the teams we meet week in and week out, and we should be proud of our achievements.
St Neots looked dangerous early on and Paul Strudley had to scramble the ball away after a long throw from Mat Michel-King, but a couple of long range attempts from James Clark were off target, Dean Stow also looked dangerous down the left as we more than held our own before Stefan Brown gave us the lead from close range from Clark’s pass after 20 minutes and Stow shot just wide in another good attack. The combination of Matt Day and Jon Boardman at the centre of our defence did well as the home side threatened from three corners in succession, but the play went on for some time with Stow lying injured, before the ball eventually ran out of play for some belated treatment to the injured player.
The home side attacked strongly after the interval, but Strudley was equal to every St Neots effort until Nathan Prater headed home from a corner in the 52nd minute. The St Neoats goalkeeper saved when Day headed goal wards following a long throw from James Rusby, but Drew Roberts shot wide when the home side pressed forward. Brown fired over near the end , again from a Rusby throw, but neither side could snatch that vital goal to strengthen their play-off challenge and honours were even, perhaps a fair result on the day.

Report by Ron Tarry