After Mondays excellent victory over play off rivals Whitchurch Alport, Sandbach were hoping to make it back to back league wins. They almost got off to the perfect start when Josh Lane connected well with a deep cross from the right, although his shot was straight at the Carlisle keeper.

Both teams struggled in the final third, neither of them could find the final ball that would split open the oppositions defence. Carlisle resorted to route one football, and mid-way through the first half a long free kick from the goal keeper was won in the air by Simon Tucker, whose header allowed David Reynard to get in behind, fortunately for Sandbach he dragged his shot well wide of Ryan Moss’ right post.

Ten minutes before half time Sandbach’s Luke Walley unleashed a powerful shot from 20 yards but the Carlisle keeper got down well to his right to push it around the post from a corner. Despite Sandbach dominating on the corner count they couldn’t find an opening goal and headed into the break at 0-0.

Sandbach started the second half brilliantly and were unlucky not to take the lead when Josh Lane’s pass found right back Adam Clayton who cut inside onto his left foot and tried to curl one towards the back post, only for Casson in the Carlisle goal to palm the ball away for a corner.

Two minutes later Sandbach had another chance to go ahead when good work from James Kirby down the left allowed Jordan Davies to curl in a shot, unfortunately for him his shot didn’t curl enough as it went wide of the right post.

Sandbach were dominating the early parts of the second half, but they couldn’t take their chances, they were eventually punished for this when Carlisle’s Simon Tucker broke the offside trap and raced into the box, he then danced his way into the six yard box, avoiding tackles from both Bradley Cooper and Kris Stockton before eventually placing the ball into the bottom left corner of Moss’ goal.

Despite being a goal down, Sandbach knew that they still had a chance to get back into the game as they had been the better side for most of the game. On 79 minutes Jordan Davies sent in a cross towards target man James Kirby, however his cross missed everyone and looped over the keeper to nestle in the back of the net. Only Davies himself will know if he meant it!

With 10 minutes to go Sandbach still had time to find a winner. In the 83rd minute they had a great chance to do this when a good one-two between Kirby and Walley on the outside of the box resulted in Walley being one on one with the goalkeeper, however he dragged his shot wide of the left post. This was another chance squandered and it was turning out to be one of those days in front of goal for United as nothing would go in.

As the game made its way into added time Sandbach had a free kick on the edge of the box. As the Carlisle keeper was making sure his wall was right, Jordan Davies curled the ball into the bottom right corner of the goal, this was met by protests from the Carlisle players who were calling for the goal to be disallowed as the referee hadn’t blown his whistle. As the protests continued the referee was adamant that the goal should stand as he told Davies that he could take a quick freekick, Carlisle accepted that they weren’t going to change the referees mind. As both players regrouped and got into position for the restart, the referee then decided to go to the linesman for a second opinion on the matter. After much consultation the referee then changed his mind and demanded that the goal would be disallowed, and the free kick must be retaken. This was a bizarre decision from the referee who had allowed the goal to stand and made the players line up for the restart before then changing his mind and disallowing the goal.

Eventually the free kick was retaken, however this time it was the right footed Ryan Cattermole who stood over the ball, after ensuring that this time the referee had blown his whistle, Cattermole bent his freekick around the wall and into the bottom left corner of the goal, sparking jubilant scenes in the home dugout as they felt as though the original decision to disallow the free kick was wrong.

The referee added six minutes on at the end of the game, and in the 93rd minute Sandbach had the chance to put icing on the cake when top scorer James Kirby turned on the edge of the box and unleashed a venomous shot that flew wide of Casson’s right post.

The game ended 2-1 to Sandbach, it was a deserved win for United who continue to cement their place in the play offs. Despite Sandbach manager Andy Hockenhull being unavailable for the game, assistant manager Donny Brown and stand In Player/manager Stuart Tulloch carried on where Hockenhull had left off by picking up a valuable win for their side, after the game Tulloch said “it was a frustrating day in front of goal, but at the end of the day a win is a win and we’ll take that”

Next Match
Sandbach travel to Prestwich Heys (M45 6WG) on Wednesday evening for a 7:45 kick off as both teams look to secure a play-off place. With Heys sitting in 4th place and United in 5th, this promises to be a great match.