St Neots Town F.C.
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Saints recorded their first pre-season victory in a hard fought match against Ridgeons Premier League side Norwich United. If all goes well, the two teams could meet again at Norwich in the FA Cup when the new season gets underway.

Following the mid-week game against a Tottenham XI, this match gave a clearer indication of how Steve Lomas's side were progressing. The early exchanges were fairly even with neither side creating a really clear cut opening before Norwich took the lead after nineteen minutes. Saints came back immediately at their opponents with the Josh Sozzo - Liam Harrold partnership looking dangerous. Sozzo, in particular was unlucky not to equalise on three occasions as Saints put together some good moves but he was not to be denied when a Norwich defender did not realise that Sozzo was standing between him and the goalkeeper when he tried a backpass. Sozzo gratefully accepted the gift, rounding the keeper and avoiding three other defenders to score. This was after thirty five minutes and Saints, looking the better side, were ahead five minutes when Harrold scored his second pre-season goal in successive matches with a cool finish.

Making several changes at half-time, the home side looked a bit disjointed with Norwich pushing forward and the visitors scored their second goal of the match when Nicky Hurst slipped when trying to clear the ball leaving the Norwich player with the simple pass of scoring past Luke McShane. Saints made further changes and were rewarded with the winner when Luigi Rocco, cutting in from the right, was tripped in the penalty area. Parys Okai, sending the keeper the wrong way, put away the resulting penalty.

Overall, a very good work out against opposition at the same level of football for St Neots and a deserved victory.

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Match date: Sat 1st August 2009