After the significant away win against Isle of Man, the Ramblers were on the road again. Back on mainland soil this time, the trip was much shorter as they made the journey up to Barnton. Former Sandbach striker Amir Hajri started for Barnton, as wing-back Liam Fitzpatrick kept his place in the Sandbach team after his impressive display in the Isle of Man.

Barnton began the better side, keeping possession well and not allowing Sandbach to have any chances. The passes in behind the defence were causing early issues for the visitors, and eventually lead to a penalty inside the first ten minutes. Amir Hajri stepped up and opened the scoring for the hosts. He calmly slotted the penalty into the bottom right corner, with Danny Hamlett diving the other way.

As the home side continued to dominate possession, Sandbach were struggling to create any goal scoring opportunities, and were struggling to play out from the back successfully. In the 25th minute, Lewis Edwards suddenly found himself in a 1v1 situation with Hamlett after a loss of possession from Sandbach. He waited for Hamlett to advance before firing a shot into the bottom left corner.

After the first half hour, Sandbach awoke and were beginning to find their way back into the game with extended periods of possession. A long kick from Hamlett ran all the way through to Brian Barton. Barnton goalkeeper Arran Lyons came out to narrow down the angles, but Barton wisely squared the ball to Bobbie McDonnell, who slotted a left-footed shot into the empty net.

Sandbach carried their dominance at the end of the first half into the second. After only 5 minutes of play, Robbie Hatton was brought down in the box but the referee surprisingly allowed play to continue. However, shortly after, Tatters was also brought down in the box, which was spotted by the referee and he immediately pointed to the penalty spot. Hatton calmly placed the ball into the bottom right corner for the equaliser, with Lyons staying in the middle of his net.

Sandbach dominated a tired Barnton side in the final minutes, relentlessly attacking the goal but just falling short at the pivotal moments.

In the dying moments of the game, Sandbach won a corner and saw the opportunity to grab the winner that their second half performance could have deserved. However, it was cleared only as far as substitute Steve Jones, and his low strike was wide, and the full-time whistle blew.

Although Sandbach came away with a point having found themselves two goals down after 25 minutes, they may feel disheartened as they had many promising chances towards the end of the match and dominated the second half. Sandbach now wait until the New Year for their next league match against Stafford Town.