This match was played on a beautiful autumn day and on a surface looking as good as I have ever seen it at the welfare ground. Sacriston started well on 2 minutes when a free flowing team move resulted in Ward’s shot being well saved with Gregory lurking with intent waiting for the rebound of the Bishop keeper. Sacriston then lost striker Gavin McCormack after just 4 minutes following a strong challenge from behind which hurt his back. Ryan Grayson replaced him.
The match was played at a very slow pace by both teams with Sacriston being allowed lots of time and space on the ball at the back with Bishop playing one up front and defending deep. This caused Sacriston some problems and our play was to slow at times to break Bishop down which resulted in a very poor first half. Only on a couple of occasions did Sacriston get in behind the defence once on 44 minutes when Grant Boyd put a great cross in from the left wing which found Ward in the box but he couldn’t keep his header down.
The 2nd half started in a similar fashion and on 51 minutes a move slowed down to the point where Rob Draper who was the last man played an under hit back pass back to Potts which was intercepted by the Bishop forward who finished well into the bottom right hand corner from 12 yards out. This was a terrible goal to concede.
This briefly did spark Sacriston into action and two minutes later they were level. A free kick was played into the box which was only partially cleared to the 18 yard line where Captain O’Brien struck a great volley which went over the keepers head into the top of the net.
Sacriston then had their best spell in the game for the next 10 minutes or so. Ryan Grayson hit the post on 57 minutes with a close range shot and Sacriston had some other opportunities without testing the Bishop keeper too much.
Gary Draper had come on for Jacob Horner by now and Marc Bladen made his long awaited come back from injury replacing Andrew Solan with Rob Draper moving into midfield. Bladen played brilliantly and calmed the defence right down and made some superb challenges and played as if he had not been away at all. Gary Draper had a good influence on the game as well linking the midfield to attack well and he finished the game playing up front with Ward when James Thornton came on to replace Ryan Grayson.
The game was on a bit of a knife edge towards the end of the 90 minutes with both teams having chances but normal time didn’t produce a winner so extra time was needed.
The first half of extra time came and went with no real goalmouth action but Embleton and Solan both picked up injuries so Horner and Rob Draper found themselves back on the pitch to complete the match.
Sacriston took the lead on 108 minutes when Collinson made a run from sweeper into the oppositions half and he exchanged passes with Ward inside the box before looping a header over the Bishop keeper which took a couple of bounces before nestling into the corner of the net.
However Bishop never gave up and although Ward & Gary Draper wasted a couple of golden chances on the break towards the end of extra time to sew the game up Bishop laid siege to our goal in the final 2 minutes. Bishop won corner after corner and even won a free kick on the edge of the area with every player including the goalkeeper in our box but Sacriston defended well and just about saw the game out.
The biggest compliment I can give them was that the best player on the pitch was the Bishop Midlham number 8 Olley who played in midfield. This kid was absolutely everywhere all game and he never gave up.
We did enough to get through and although we didn’t play anywhere near our best we got the result in the end and that is all that matters in cup matches. Danny O’Brien had a superb match and his goal gave us the spark that we needed at the time to get into the game. Andrew Collinson improved throughout the game and finished the game strongly marshalling the defence with superb organisation. It was with these two players experience that saw the team through the tough periods at the end of the match.
Anthony Ward never stopped running for the cause up front and he was the player that looked most likely to get us a goal but his finishing wasn’t there today but hopefully he has saved some goals for the derby match next Sunday.
Bishop Midlham were a pleasure to play against and seemed a great set of lads and most of their team came into our club afterwards for a drink despite being beaten in the match.
A quick word also for the referee Bill Burrell who was excellent on the day I just wish we could have him more often because whatever the result is when he referees I always feel he has been fair to both teams and gets most decisions correct because he is nearly always in a good position to adjudge.
