We were only invited to play this friendly 4 days before at short notice and with half the squad unavailable we could only turn out the bare 11. However this was very beneficial because the game gave those players a much needed workout in which was a very competitive friendly.
It also gave us the opportunity to give John Lee his Sacriston Cricket Club FC debut in goal and he didn’t disappoint putting in a very good performance. Lewis Straughair made his appearance for a while and once switched to left midfield from up front in the 2nd half played well also.
Our secretary Marc Hall made a guest appearance for his home town club in goal for the opposition and he also played very well.
Sacriston started the game very well and caused problems early on and created a number of promising situations but never made the most of the chances. Considering most of our lads haven’t kicked a ball since the heart foundation cup final in May the fitness levels were pretty good but that lack of match sharpness showed at times which did stop our flow when trying to pass our way forward.
New Brancpeth started to come into the game and on 28 minutes took the lead when a low in swinging corner wasn’t cleared properly by the Segga defence at the near post and the ball fell to the NB player who drilled a low right footed shot into the left corner of the net. New Brancpeth finished the half strongly and although they were playing with a strong wind in their favour could have had a bigger lead than 1-0 at half time but for some good defending.
Sacriston played much better in the 2nd half and created many chances and but for 3 brilliant saves from Hall in the New Brancpeth goal Sacriston would have been ahead. He denied Coates, Ward & McCormack. Sacriston got level on 66 minutes when Ward did well to flick on a John Lee goal kick into the path of Gavin McCormack who carried the ball to the edge of the 18 yard box before unleashing an unstoppable right footed shot into the left hand corner of the net.
New Brancpeth not long afterwards hit the post after some slack defending and twice John Lee made good saves after the Sacriston defence got caught short after piling forward but these were rare. Sacriston had 2 further good opportunities when Straughair got himself into a great position unmarked at the near post but he failed to make connection with a header with the goal at his mercy and O’Brien also headed a corner over the bar from around 10 yards when well placed.
Overall this was an entertaining and competitive pre- season friendly played in a great spirit.
Our next fixture is next Sunday 19th July away against Spennymoor Salvins.
