UCL Premier Division St Neots Town 1 Raunds Town 2 ST NEOTS Town manager Iain Parr blasted his side s defensive performance after Raunds left Rowley Park with all three points. The defeat leaves Saints with just one win in their last five league games an

UCL Premier Division

St Neots Town 1

Raunds Town 2

ST NEOTS Town manager Iain Parr blasted his side's defensive performance after Raunds left Rowley Park with all three points.

The defeat leaves Saints with just one win in their last five league games and the Town manager raged: "We were very naïve in defence for both goals.

"We are in a very good league position but the players need to believe themselves that we are genuine promotion contenders.

"We can't allow these types of games to slip by without getting something out of them."

St Neots found Raunds in no mood to give away any seasonal gifts as they slipped to defeat to their fast-improving visitors.

Raunds will consider that this is their best scalp to date as their revival rolled on at Rowley Park.

They took the lead after only 12 minutes when Callum Ridgway was given time to cross and found skipper David Coales who netted from close range as the defence hesitated.

The home side hit back quickly when Tony Russell played a nicely weighted ball in behind the visitors' defence for the reliable Barrington Belgrave to latch on to and steer into the net.

The home defence then showed its frailty again - within five minutes the visitors had regained the lead when Danny Frid rose to head a Ricky Chambers free kick into the Town goal.

Other chances came and went but neither side was able to add to the scoresheet before the interval. Parr introduced Jon Hall at the start of the second half and Saints began a long period of domination over their opponents.

With Raunds rarely threatening, Kev Byrne had a good chance to equalise but that went begging and other half chances weren't taken.

The addition of Steve Khune and Chris Garwell served to increase the home side's urgency and Luigi Rocco zipped around trying to create further chances.

All was to no avail as Raunds were more than content to soak up what few threats the Rowley Park outfit could offer and leave with the spoils.

St Neots go to Yaxley on Saturday before a massive run of three home games against their promotion rivals.

St Ives Town visit Rowley Park on Boxing Day, Deeping Rangers are the opposition on December 29 before Boston Town arrive on January 5.