Southam close gap on leaders thanks to Briggs’ late winner

A late winner from Mark Briggs made it three wins in a row for Saints and took Luke Fogarty’s side to within five points of leaders Bolehall Swifts at the top of the Athium Midland Combination table, writes David Hucker.

Saints should have opened the scoring after just four minutes when Jack Taylor set up Marc Passey, but his low shot was placed too near to home keeper Mark Sheils.

Neil Stacey then miskicked with the goal at his mercy and, as Saints forced two consecutive corners, man-of-the-match Howard Forinton shot straight at Sheils.

Earlswood lost winger Lewis Cosgrove with a hamstring injury in the 21st minute but could have taken the lead from a long throw by Andy Rowe, only for Darren Green to put his shot wide.

Forinton went close again from another corner but this time Sheils tipped his powerful shot over the bar.

The on-loan striker was to get his goal in the 37th minute, shooting low and hard across the keeper into the far corner.

Taylor then shot over from long range when a pass to Stacey or Forinton might have been the better option and the returning Jim Stott kept Saints’ lead intact when saving with his legs, with Briggs heading off the line to complete the clearance.

On the stroke of half-time, Saints failed to clear a corner and Richard Prosser equalised for Earlswood.

Substitute Junior Hewitt should have given the home side the lead after the restart, but shot wide before Saints had a Stacey effort disallowed for a foul on the keeper.

Earlswood were forced to play the last half hour with ten men after captain Steve Darlington received a second caution for pulling back Forinton and the Saints hitman was then denied from a narrow angle by the legs of Sheils.

Saints regained the lead in the 74th minute when Charlie Neale was fouled on the edge of box and Taylor fired the penalty low and hard into the bottom left corner, only for some sloppy defending to cost them dear as Hewitt brought Earlswood back on terms a minute later.

But Saints got the result they were looking for as substitute Tunde Ajibade chased a ball down and played it infield to Briggs, who let fly from 30 yards into the top right-hand corner.

Despite closing the gap on Bolehall, Fogarty was not getting carried away, saying: “We created a lot of chances and should have been out of sight by half-time. But we wasted a few and their goalkeeper made some outstanding saves.

“It was a good scrap, though, and we got all three points thanks to a wonder goal near the end. But there is a long way to go and we have another tough match coming up this weekend.”

Tomorrow, Saints are hoping for a big crowd at Banbury Road for the visit of fourth-placed Coventry Copsewood (3pm) and fans can take advantage of a special offer of admission, programme and drink from the bar for £7. Season-ticket holders and members will pay just £2.