Stone Dominoes 0 Sandbach United 6

After winning late on against Stone Old Alleynains last weekend Sandbach travelled to Wellbeing Park again, however this time to face bottom of the league side Stone Dominoes.

Stone been through all sorts this season, after nearly going but a few weeks ago due to lack of finances they are currently going through a reshuffle behind the scenes, manager Peter Griffiths has had to build his team from scratch after taking charge only a matter of weeks ago. His squad todays featured six debutants and only three substitutes.

It didn’t take Sandbach long to take the lead, in fact just 41 seconds had been played before Josh Lane picked up the ball in the opposition half before sliding it through to captain Chris Rowntree who danced his way into the box, skipping past a tackle before lashing it into the top left corner of the goal leaving the keeper with no chance. Rowntree’s goal was Sandbach’s fasted goal since Jamie Morgan’s goal against Charnock Richard in February 2017.

Manager Andy Hockenhull could not have wished for a better start to the game, he would have been more delighted when his team doubled their lead ten minutes later thanks to a second Josh Lane penalty on as many games. Cal Wilkinson hacked down Billy Buckley in the box and the ref showed no hesitation when it came to pointing to the spot. Lane stepped up and squeezed his penalty into the bottom left corner, the keeper guessed the right way but he couldn’t keep the ball out.

United were playing some really good stuff and their free flowing football meant that they couldn’t easily get in behind the Stone defence. Harry Cain played an over the top ball down the left flank to Josh Lane, he then played the ball into the box to Ryan Allcock who ran into the pass before shooting towards the far right corner, however his shot went agonisingly past the outside of the post. As the rain began to pour down the pitch became very sticky and dribbling with the ball was becoming nearly impossible. Luckily for Sandbach they are a side that like to keep the ball moving and keep dribbling to a minimum as they try and pass teams off the park. United’s passing football was proving hard for the male shift Stone side to deal with and Sandbach make the home sides task a lot harder with ten minutes if the half to go as Kieran Garner-Knapper scored a contender for goal of the season. Buckley again found himself in space, this time down the left side. He then sent in a deep cross that was aimed towards Knapper at the back post, the right winger watched the ball all the way onto his right foot before volleying into the top right corner of the net leaving the keeper helpless. It was a superb goal, high in technical quality.

Sandbach we’re dominating the game and the cane very close to adding a fourth when Matt Pearson raced down the right flank before sending in a teasing low cross into the box, Ryan Allcock managed to beat the defender to the ball, however his shot from six yards was saved by the legs of the keeper. However, Allcock made up for this miss two minutes later as a low Josh Lane cross from the left was spilled by the keeper and it fell to the feet of Allcock who fired it into the top right corner.

At half time Sandbach’s dominance had seen them out four past Reece Quinn who took a knock to his left arm early in the first half so he was basically playing with just one arm as there was no sub keeper on the Stone bench. As the back room teams enjoyed the superb cream cake that was supplied by the Stone hospitality staff, the rain continued to come down and as the second half began the pitch was a bog. The second half took a long while to spark into action. At 4-0 up Sandbach had taken their foot off the gas and they were just knocking the ball around nicely, trying to work the opposition into the ground. With half an hour of the game to play sandbach has their first shot of the half as Buckley cut in from the left and shot from outside the box but it was easy for the keeper to collect at his near post.

Ten minutes later Sandbach’s fifth goal came when Ryan Allcock made space on the edge of the box before shooting across goal and into the bottom right corner of the goal, past the full stretched keeper who couldn’t get near it. With 20 minutes to go Sandbach bought on youngster Tom Williams and he came close to scoring his first for the first time when Ledwards’ cross from the left was cleared as far as Williams on the edge of the box who looked to lose his footing as he went to shoot which took the power out of the shot and it was easy for the keeper to hold. Chris Rowntree rounded off what was a superb performance from Sandbach as he added a sixth with 12 minutes to go has Harry Cain’s shot from 20 yards was blocked and it looked up into the air. Wilkinson looked to head the ball back to his keeper but Rowntree intercepted the pass and volleyed in from just inside the box. In all honestly Sandbach could have had plenty more goals today but they had to settle for 6.

Despite conceding six Reece Quinn in the Dominoes goal was superb and he made the score looked relatively respectable. Despite being bottom of the league Stone must take be proud of what the have achieved in the last few weeks as it looked for certain that they were going to fold and no longer be a football club.