Sandbach United 4 AFC Liverpool 1

After grinding out a victory against local rivals Alsager Town on Tuesday, Sandbach returned to the cup competitions as they faced Division One North side, AFC Liverpool, at home in the first round of the Macron Cup on Saturday, writes Jack Beresford.

Sandbach started in the best way possible as after just five minutes they took the lead through a superb goal from Billy Buckley, he started the move by spraying the ball out to the right where Josh Lane was, he then pulled the ball to the edge of the box to Buckley, who chested the ball down, waited for it to sit up and rifled it into the top right corner of the goal, leaving the keeper with no chance and adding to his collection of wonderful goals that he has scored this season.

Ten minutes later Sandbach came close to adding a second when captain Bradley Copper played the ball down the right towards Ryan Allcock who flicked the ball inside to new signing Jordan Erdmann, who then played the ball into the path of Kieran Garner-Knapper in the box, who cut inside before shooting straight at the keeper.

Dean Twigg has been a very good signing for United and the young lad showed his worth after 20 minutes when he muscled his way into the box before shooting from the right side of the box however it was straight at the keeper.

On the 30-minute mark the game changed, Sandbach were on the attack and Billy Buckley was running into the attacking third to keep up with play but he was abruptly halted by Ryan Hardacre who needlessly tripped Buckley right in front of the referee, who was quick to show the Liverpool man the red card. It was a stupid decision from Hardacre who made his sides chances of getting back into the game a lot harder.

Two minutes later Sandbach doubled their lead when Kieran Garner-Knapper found Erdmann on the right side of the box, he then played a first-time ball back to into the path of Garner-Knapper, who carried on his run and poked the ball under the onrushing keeper capping off a superb Sandbach move.

Sandbach looked a real force going forward, they almost added a third just moments later when Garner-Knapper used his pace to get in behind the defence, his low cross was then directed onto the bar by the Liverpool number 5, he was very lucky as the ball could have gone anywhere, thankfully it cannoned off the bar and away from danger.

On the stroke of half time Liverpool pulled a goal back when a corner from the right was cleared as far as Chris Brady who chested the ball down before volleying into the top right corner from the edge of the box. Brady’s goal had got his side back into the game and at half time the score was 2-1 to Sandbach with it all to play for.

Sandbach started the second half brightly and they came close to adding a third when a corner from the right was aimed towards Kris Stockton at the back post, he headed the ball back across goal to O’Riordan who headed wide of the right post from close range.

Moments later Sandbach had the ball in the back of the net for a third time, however it was deemed to be offside. Jordan Erdmann got up highest to meet a corner from the right, he headed on goal and it looked to be going wide of the right post, but Rowntree was on hand to head into the net, but the linesman had his flag up and ruled out the goal.

Ten minutes later Sandbach finally added a third when a poor pass back to the keeper from the Liverpool full back was latched onto by Allcock who got to the left by line before squaring to Erdmann, who managed to flick the ball towards the back post into the bottom corner of the net, a great finish from the debutant who had been impressive all game.

With ten minutes to go Sandbach put the game beyond doubt as another dangerous delivery from the right was met by Stockton who volleyed the ball into the top left corner. It was a superb finish and not one that you’d expect from a centre half.

Sandbach had been excellent all game, despite missing a few big names they were superb, AFC Liverpool had been going well this season so to put four past them will be a big confidence booster for Hockenhull and his boys. Sandbach will face premier side Burscough away in the next round on 10th November.

Match Report: Jack Beresford.

More match photographs can be viewed by clicking here.