The final score line doesn’t even come close to telling the true story of the balance of play over the 90 minutes but at the end of the day the result is the only thing that matters and we were on the wrong end of a 4-0 score line.
We had several players unavailable for one reason or another and this did cause a re-shuffle to our side but we had more than enough quality, chances and possession during the course of the match to get a good result here. A costly substitution by me in an attempt to get level caused disruption to the team and we conceded 3 goals late on as a result so I take the blame for this.
Bad luck and poor finishing at crucial times cost us the game this time. Coxhoe had a few players different to what they had last Sunday but so did we so no excuses can be made really for this result.
Coxhoe came out fast from the start and pressured us on the ball and had a couple of close efforts on the Sacriston goal. The first chance Sacriston had come on 12 minutes when Gary Smith played a lovely cross from the left hand side to the back post where Greg Coates found himself with in acres of space 12 yards out but he took his shot first time and it went over the bar.
Then on 15 minutes Coxhoe took the lead. A free kick was flicked on by a Coxhoe player on the edge of the 18 yard box towards another Coxhoe player who used the pace of the ball to divert his header over the stranded Potts into the Sacriston goal. How he had so much space with nobody around him to head the ball into the net I don’t know. This was a terribly soft goal to concede.
Gary Smith was involved again when a ball came over from the right hand side in the air and Smith positioned himself superbly to take on a left foot volley first time which crashed against the far post and to safety. The rest of the first half was pretty even.
Sacriston started the 2nd half well and put lots of pressure on the Coxhoe defenders and had all the play but Coxhoe did catch us on the break twice and Potts was forced into 2 brilliant saves to keep us in the game.
Sacriston nearly scored on 60 minutes when Danny O’Brien met Greg Coates corner with a bullet header from 10 yards out which looked destined to bulge the net but it went just over the bar. Then the same player hit the cross bar 2 minutes later when he challenged Orton in the Coxhoe goal for a header from a long throw in into the box which the keeper spilled straight down to O’Brien’s feet and he turned well on the ball and shot only to see the ball cannon of the crossbar.
Coxhoe nearly went 2-0 up when Grant Boyd back tracking tackled the Coxhoe player 20 yards from goal but his tackle was that strong that the ball went flying towards our goal and hit the post.
Then on 83 minutes Coxhoe broke away on the counter attack from our own corner and we couldn’t get enough bodies back to stop the Coxhoe forward Young who carried the ball all the way into the box before finishing superbly making it 2-0 and killing the game.
Greg Coates then twice went close to scoring one with a flying diving header which went just wide and then with a great run and cross shot which went just wide of the post.
On 85 minutes the same thing happened and Ward managed to foul the Coxhoe player this time so he didn’t go through and score but from the resulting free kick Young’s shot took a wicked deflection of Gibbs in the Sacriston wall and into the other corner of the net.
Coxhoe managed a 4th in injury time when Potts pushed a shot out from the Coxhoe player which only fell to another Coxhoe player at the far post who followed in well and got himself a tap in. The final whistle went straight away from the re-start.
Greg Coates was a constant threat all night and on another day could have scored a few. The number 10 Burton I think is name was played well all night for Coxhoe and he gave our defence a hard night with his excellent touch and movement.
Overall a very bad night and although we didn’t play well it wasn’t as bad as the final score looks and we went all out to get level with 7 minutes to go and ended up getting caught out at the other end.
