Betteridge Praises ‘Dominant’ Sarries Display Over Newent After Reflecting on a Strong End to the Season

Five first half goals saw Cheltenham Saracens come from behind to beat Newent Town 4-1 on the closing day of the season, writes Alfie Richmond.

As the curtain closes on another brilliant season of non-league football, Sarries hosted Newent with both teams looking to end their campaigns on a high.

Saracens had secured a sixth place finish — their best league finish since the 2021/2022 season. The visitors had confirmed a solid mid-table spot to end the season, and were looking to bounce back from consecutive defeats to Stonehouse.

Newent won the reverse fixture in August, but Saracens responded with a 6–5 penalty shootout victory in the UHL Challenge Cup in October. Heading into this third meeting, Saracens were aiming for a second win over The Daffs.

Oakley James had the first effort for the hosts 20 seconds into the game, bringing the ball down nicely with his chest before firing one into the arms of Leyton Joyce in the Newent goal.

But just three minutes later, Newent opened the scoring. Max Poidevin found Connor Baker who delicately lifted the ball over Sarries keeper Harvey Need to give the visitors an early lead.

The hosts responded almost instantly — and equalised just five minutes later. Josh Alrdridge’s corner found the head of Archie Alder who nodded home from close range to level the scoring.

Tommy Bond put the home side ahead on 14 minutes, and a quick turnaround saw the home side go ahead. A brilliant move from back to front saw Aldridge pick the ball up from deep to find Callum Dark. His ball through to Bond was inviting for the forward, who calmly slotted home.

Dark grabbed himself another assist on 30 minutes to double the Sarries advantage, when he lofted a ball to the back-post for Jordan Adeji to finish from close range. The hosts had reacted well to going a goal down, and lead 3-1 after half an hour.

Adeji was denied a second four minutes later, when a Joe Richards header fell nicely to the striker, only to be denied by the strong hand of Joyce.

James forced another good stop from the keeper moments later, with a free-kick that was parried into the path of Bond, who fired over the bar.

The Sarries pressure continued to mount, and they got their fourth on 35 minutes. Some persistent work from Adeji forced a Newent defender into error, and this time, he made no mistake — burying home to grab his second.

Despite the early Newent goal, Saracens had responded excellently, and led 4-1 at the break.

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The visitors began the second half with more intent, and had seemed to nullify the Sarries threat. Dylan Hart had half a chance to pull one back when he struck over the bar from range on 62 minutes.

The best chance of the second half came with ten minutes remaining, after Baker found himself in-behind the hosts’ defence. His powerful strike was well handled by Need to deny the forward a second.

An uneventful and goalless second half saw the home side see out their 4-1 win, which Saracens manager Ryan Betteridge labelled as a ‘great reaction’.

“Obviously it could’ve knocked the wind out of us, conceding early, but — to be fair — they dusted themselves down, and we put the game to bed in the first half, and it was a dominant display.”

“We scored some great goals. Everything that we’ve been working on, and I’m talking about this season, you probably saw in a snapshot in the first half — some good football, some dogginess, some determined qualities about the team…”

“The second half was a bit of a non-event, but to be fair, we had hopefully put the game to bed by then and it was going to be hard to replicate what we did in the first half. But overall, really pleased with the display and a good result in the end,” Betteridge said.

Malmesbury Victoria’s draw this afternoon meant that Cheltenham Saracens finished just two points outside the play-offs. Betteridge touched on his overall feeling of how his side’s campaign went.

“To sum it up, we’re disappointed that we didn’t make the playoffs. But we, as a club, probably don’t really have the rights to make the playoffs… if you look around at what other teams are doing. If we split the season into three thirds, the middle third is where we just dropped too many silly points, and that’s probably what’s cost us a play-off place.”

“It wasn’t for the want of trying” Betteridge went on to say.

“And it wasn’t for the want of the lad’s effort, attitude and application… but it’ll be a good experience. It’s a young group. We’ve managed to add a little bit of experience to it as the season’s gone on, but generally it is still a young group.”

Betteridge rounded off by saying — “we’re disappointed, but if you’d have told us at the start of the season, with two games to go, you’d have been still in the playoff mix, we’d have been pretty happy with that. So — disappointed — but overall, pleased.”

Subs: Djiaha-Nsangou (85’), Rose (76’), Cund (68’), Rose (68’).

Subs: Way, Duff (45’), Akhlaq (45’), Blood.

C Martin Roofing Man of the Match – Oakley James (Cheltenham Saracens)