We had several players out injured today so to come away from New Brancpeth with a 2-2 draw was a good result particularly after being 2-0 down.
Sacriston started the game well with some excellent approach play in midfield but with no killer instinct when we finally did get into the box making some bad choices in and around the box.
Anthony Bussey and Nicol along with Hindmarch started to get a grip of the game and on 25 minutes Marc Bladen was forced into making a foul on Bussey on the edge of our own penalty box. Nicol struck his free kick to the goalkeeper’s side of the wall where Potts got a good left hand to the ball put could only divert it on to the inside of the post and into the net.
Then with 4 minutes to go until half time New Brancpeth broke powerfully from our corner and the ball was cleared up field and all of a sudden the Brancpeth forward was one on one against Quinn in the Sacriston defence where the ball bounced awkwardly and the Brancpeth player overpowered the Sacriston defence and placed his shot powerfully into the top corner of the net to make it 2-0.
Sacriston went straight up the field and nearly scored when O’Brien diverted his header from Graeme Embleton’s corner towards Wood who then placed his header onto the post and the half time whistle went shortly afterwards.
At this point New Brancpeth were well on top but Sacriston had the advantage of the wind and kicking downhill in the 2nd half and during this time New Brancpeth hardly got out of their own half and we totally dominated the game and had around 8 chances to win the game too many to go through here on this report but many players were culpabale.
We scored on 48 minutes when Graeme Embleton’s wicked inswinging corner kick went over the head of the keeper and straight into the net direct.
This gave the team confidence and we started to win the ball lots more in midfield and we were getting much more space with which to use the ball and we played some great football at times. Horner, Wood and Ward all linked up well with Embleton and Draper and it looked like we were capable of scoring every time we went forward but couldn’t find the final finish.
Then on 67 minutes a great through ball sent Wood through on goal and he got himself between the last defender and the goalkeeper 6 yards from goal before being crudely taken down but somehow the referee didn’t see it and play was allowed to continue. This was the most blatant penalty I have ever seen a truly awful decision.
We did get a late equalizer 5 minutes from full time which was the very least we deserved when Embleton’s corner was headed back across goal where Wood was waiting at the far post and he finished well from close range.
Then the referee blew for full time 2 minutes early to deny us the chance of victory.
Overall it was a good match against a decent side and we responded well with some of the new lads getting more comfortable in the team by the minute.
