Coombs penalty flick seals Kings & Alleyns fate.

Saxons have a good record against Kings and were keen to continue that run. The away side settled in quickly with some early pressure resulting in Alex Coombs’ deflected pass finding its way to the returning Jamie Busbridge on the far post. Shortly after that Saxons doubled their lead as good work in the middle from Jon Meredith & Andy Acott led to Olli Beal picking up the ball at the top of the D, before finding Busbridge with a clever reverse pass, who finished through the ‘keepers legs to make it 2-0.

Kings then came back into the game partly down to a harsh yellow card for Chris Meredith. The pressure told as they got a goal before half time from a short corner. This continued into the second half with the same player scoring two further short corners to make the score 3-2. Some good defending from centre back pairing Gavin Cload & Tobias Reed as well as a string of fine saves from Nate Webster in goal kept Saxons in the tie despite the umpire finding reason to brandish another yellow in Meredith’s direction.

Saxons however were not done as they won a short corner of their own. Having failed to convert some earlier shorts they resorted to a switch back to the taker Tobias Reed. Tobias was well found by Beal and played the ball for Busbridge to deflect home for his hat-trick, albeit with the ball only crossing the line by the smallest of margins.

Saxons piled on the pressure with the youthful Bailey Wright finding space in the D before firing a fierce shot at goal which resulted in a penalty flick as it struck a defender on its way into the goal. Alex Coombs duly stepped up to convert to make it 4-3. Despite some late pressure from Kings Saxons managed to see the game out helped by some good work from Tudor Stainsbury in the middle.

Man of the match was Jamie Busbridge in his final match as captain.