The Cobblers open up a 3 point lead at the top of the Toolstation Western League thanks to a 4-0 away win at Cadbury Heath. The game was tighter than the scoreline suggested but 3 late goals added a fine gloss that the Street performance deserved.
The Cobblers were on top from the off and nearly took the lead after 4 minutes when from a corner a Craig Herrod shot was deflected by a defender onto the crossbar. An early reprieve for the hosts and Street looked comfortable pressing at every opportunity and looking dangerous on corners in the swirling wind. On 22 minutes it was from one these corners that Josh Wadham nearly broke the deadlock when he rose to meet a deep cross only to see his looping header bounce off the crossbar, in the resulting clearance Wadham's snapshot was well saved by the Heath keeper. The first goal of the game came on 34 minutes in rather bizarre fashion, after good work on the left between Wadham and Lewis Tasker, the later's swirling cross looked like it was going out of play at the far post, the Cadbury keeper took his eye off the ball to berate his defence for not closing down the cross and didn't notice Josh Bennett lurking around the back who smashed a first time cross back across the goal for his cross to hit the unsuspecting keeper and bounce off him into the back of the net for 1-0! The Cobblers maintained their momentum and the ever dangerous Wadham came close to doubling the lead with a far post header but only for the Cadbury keeper to redeem himself and tip the effort over the bar.
The second half started off slowly for the Cobblers and with Cadbury going down the hill and with the wind behind them they rallied to build some pressure, on 59 minutes this culminated into their best chance when a Heath striker cutting in from the left saw his 20 yard effort well saved by Tom Punchard in the Street goal. The middle of the second half Street got their composure back and started to play a quick passing game again and this lead to 3 goals in the last 15 minutes, on 76 minutes Steve Murray was released down the right and his quick run and cross found substitute Harry Foster whose first time shot was well taken to beat the Cadbury keeper into the top corner for 2-0. It was 3-0 on 85 minutes when a ball over the top saw the Cadbury keeper hesitate to come out and then when Wadham latched onto it he kept his cool to slot in a 25 yard effort into the bottom corner beating the back tracking keeper. The final goal came in added time when Lewis Tasker won the ball on the edge of the box and his powerful left foot rifled a shot across the keeper to nestle into the corner.
Overall a 4-0 win was well deserved and the clean sheet was equally pleasing. Man of the match Josh Wadham. Next up and an away trip on Wednesday night to Southern League Larkhall Athletic in the Somerset Premier Cup 7.30pm kick off.
Up the Cobblers!
