On a warm spring evening in front of a good crowd Sacriston put in one of the performances of the season. Pelton had a pretty strong squad out and Sacriston had up 7 player’s unavailable which made this victory all the more noteworthy.
Sacriston were up for the game from the very start and competed with Pelton all over the pitch. After some good early pressure Sacriston had a good chance on 15 minutes when Gavin McCormack got in behind the Pelton defence and fired a shot against the post.
Sacriston were on the front foot for most of the first half and had many set pieces in and around the box with a few shots on the Pelton goal.
Pelton started to come into the game towards the end of the first half and almost scored when a cross which had only been partially cleared fell to a Pelton player in the box and his shot looked goal bound all the way but Sean Gregory bravely put his head in the way to divert the effort over the bar. In Craig Mickle Pelton had the outstanding player on the field he was fantastic on the night and his play was keeping Pelton in the contest. At times it was taking 3 players to get the ball of him and in the end we fouled him to stop his progress several times. Jacob Horner for Sacriston was causing similar problems with his dribbling ability from midfield and he was brought down several times when in within sight of the Pelton box.
The start of the 2nd half was a tight affair and Sacriston made a change on 57 minutes with Craig Coates replacing Jacob Horner and the change paid off immediately. A free kick was clipped into the Pelton box which was headed out of the area and landed in the middle of the field between 6 players but it was Anthony Ward who wanted it the most and his header got the ball back towards the Pelton area where John Harrison flicked his header on to Coates at the back post who positioned himself perfectly to head home from 4 yards out to give Sacriston the lead.
Pelton came back strong and Mickle’s play forced the Sacriston captain O’Brien to be yellow carded for persistent fouling. James Thornton came into the game on 67 minutes replacing Ward who took a 10 minute breather before finishing the game later on.
Sacriston went 2-0 up on 73 minutes when Boyd pounced on hesitation in the Pelton defence and his cut back found Harrison on the edge of the 6 yard box and he finished well into the bottom right hand corner.
This gave Sacriston a much needed cushion going into the final stages of the game and with 15 minutes or so to go I decided to substitute O’Brien because he was too close to receiving a red card for Horner with Sean Gregory moving back into defence to mark Mickle which he did brilliantly.
Ward came back on to replace Harrison for the last 10 minutes who had led the line superbly and he had given the team a much needed aerial and physical presence against the robust Pelton defence.
Although Sacriston had to defend a lot in the final moments particularly from corners we didn’t really look like conceding and at times we had several of our players literally throwing their bodies in the way of any potential shots towards our goal which pleased me immensely.
Craig Coates manipulated the ball superbly towards the end of the match and showed great game management to help run down the clock. His experience and quality in the end proved crucial and he has been a superb influence on the team whenever he has played.
In the 93rd minute Pelton got 1 goal back when for the first time in the match we didn’t pick up a runner from a corner and Gyan got across the front post to divert his header into the net from 7 yards out. The final whistle blew shortly afterwards as Sacriston celebrated their first victory over Pelton for 3 years.
Full credit to all of my players who to a man stood up to the test, we carried no passengers during the match and every player at numerous stages when called upon did their jobs magnificently. There were several candidates for man of the match but Michael Quinn just got my vote for his excellent display at centre half he was magnificent and never lost a challenge all night and he defended with great skill and his positioning and the timing of his tackles were perfect. Stuart Fenton also had an outstanding game at right wing back with Collinson slotting back into his old position at sweeper with ease. McCormack & Ward’s work rate was something to behold never giving any Pelton player a second longer on the ball than necessary and this was the key to our victory.
Sean Gregory was awesome in the match and his tenacious play in midfield and then in defence typified the team’s spirit on the night. Bryan Potts has come in for some criticism in recent games but his performance tonight was superb. This was a nice way to finish our home league campaign. We now have 3 games left in the league starting with Coxhoe WMC on Sunday.
