St. Florence 5 Milford Athletic 5

This was a rematch against a Milford side who hammered the Saints 7-2 a few weeks ago, but with a few new signings and enhanced training, St. Flo;ence were well prepared for this game.

For the first 10 minutes, the Saints were all over Milford and a cracking shot by Adam Roberts hit the bar.

Five minutes later, Milford got the ball into the Saints half for the first time and also managed to get the ball into the net, even though the attacker appeared to be a yard offside.

After the restart, the Saints kept the pressure on and from a powerful throw-in by Barry Wolverson, Adam Conbeer tapped the ball into the net to level it up at 1-1.

Two minutes later, Colin Batley hit the post, but the Saints, who were now on fire, were not going to be denied and got their noses in front when Ashley Smith fired home to make it 2-1.

It remained that way until the half-hour mark when in-form striker Smith was again on target with his second goal to put his side 3-1 ahead.

Soon after, Milford missed an open goal from three yards out, with the attacker hitting the ball well over the bar, but aminute later they scored their second goal, making it 3-2.

The Saints' Sean Conbeer then had to be taken off due to an injury to his neck and was replaced by Zack Thomas, but as half-time approached the St. Florence were still in front by the odd goal in five.

The second half started and was only five minutes old when Ashley Smith launched a fantastic long pass to Adam Conbeer, who slammed it into the net - 4-2 to the Saints.

Colin Batley, unfortunately, then had to leave the field with an injury to his leg and was replaced by new signing Charlie, a recent acquisition from Saundersfoot.

And almost immediately, Charlie, with his first touch of the game, passed to Ashley Smith, who took the ball around the 'keeper and slotted it into the net for his hat-trick.

Now 5-2 up, the Saints were cruising to what seemed would be a well-deserved victory, but with half-an-hour remaining Milford decided to start playing and moved the team around, putting an extra striker up front.

The change of tactics certainly paid dividends as they responded with two goals in five minutes to narrow the gap to just 5-4.

In the 70th minute, the Saints were denied what appeared to be a blatant penalty when Adam Conbeer was taken out by the 'keeper, but Milford kept pushing forward and scored again in the 80th minute.

The score was now 5-5 and both teams were up for the fight, but at this stage Milford looked the more likely to snatch victory.

In the 85th minute, Adam Roberts was taken off after putting in a fantastic shift and was replaced by twinkle toes Geraint Tucsworthy/Jones, who didn't want anybody else to have the ball and ended up with six or seven Milford players trying to get it off him.

Finally the game was over with the referee blowing the whistle for full-time.

It was the end of an excellent game of football played by both teams and well refereed by the official.

Both teams then retired to the Parsonage for a very well-deserved pint and some excellent food.