This match was played in good spirit by both teams on an excellent playing surface. Fencehouses had the first chance of the game when Sacriston didn’t clear the ball out properly and a shot came in from 20 yards which was going towards the top corner before Potts got across well to tip the ball round the post making a very good save.
Greg Coates did well when he got in behind the Fencehouses defence with a good run into the box but his shot was well saved by the Fencehouse keeper.
The game was very open with both sides playing attractive, attacking football even if both defences were a little vulnerable to the pacey forwards at times.
Sacriston took the lead on 22 minutes when Grayson’s through ball set McCormack through in the clear and he did brilliantly confidently burying his low powerful shot into the bottom left hand corner of the net.
McCormack doubled the lead for Sacriston on 27 minutes when Grayson’s right wing cross was met by Coates at the near post but his effort rebounded off the post straight back out to McCormack who was on hand to aplly the easy finish.
Then on 36 minutes Sacriston gifted Fencehouses a way back into the game when Marc Bladen’s weak back pass allowed the Fencehouses forward to intercept the ball before it got to Potts in the Sacriston goal and he did well with the finish to make it 2-1.
For the next period of the game the game was right in the balance with both teams having good chances to score but it was Sacriston who scored the next goal of the game on 70 minutes when Ryan Grayson headed in McCormack’s cross off the underside of the bar to make the score 3-1.
Sacriston then had other chances to finish the game off and then a combination of a couple of bad refereeing decisions and complacency from Sacriston resulted in Fencehouses coming back into the game.
On 85 minutes a long hopeful punt down field resulted in the Fencehouses number 10 collecting the ball seemingly at least 5 yards offside all alone but to everyone’s amazement play was allowed to continue and he finished the chance well.
This was bad enough but somehow the referee allowed 6 minutes off injury time and in that 6th minute he awarded Fencehouses a penalty after O’Brien had cleared the ball out of the box and then some time after that a Fencehouses player walked into his arm and went down in a delayed stagger which was loudly brought to the referees attention and he then blew the whistle for a penalty. The number 10 calmly slotted the penalty away in the left hand side of the goal to make it 3-3 and the game went into extra time somehow.
Including extra time the referee played around 132 minutes the game finished at 12:55 the latest I have ever seen on a Sunday morning. With no lengthy delay for injury in the game I just don’t know where he found the time from.
However Sacriston regained they composure and took the lead in extra time when Rob Draper won a free kick on the edge of the box and from this free kick Graeme Embleton curled in a brilliant shot into the top left hand corner. There were some further hairy moments to deal with along the way but we got through in the end.
Fair play to Fencehouses they never gave up and gave it a real go.
Gavin McCormack made an excellent debut and his all round contribution to the team on the day was vital in ensuring we won the tie!
