This match was like watching Ground Hog Day the film. We played Sedgefield earlier in the season in the cup in September played well for large periods of the game but lost 2-1. The very same thing happened again yesterday.
Sacriston had 6 players unavailable so we did well to get such a strong side out really. Sacriston started the game well and took the game to Sedgefield and Ryan Grayson starting up front on his Segga debut after his transfer from Brandon and looked threatening and he had the first chance of the game when Gary Draper’s excellent cross field pass found him in space at the back post but his near post shot was well saved by the Sedgefield keeper.
Bryan Potts in the Sacriston goal did well on 15 minutes when he made a quick fire double save following a quick Sedgefield break which resulted in 2 shots from inside the box.
Sacriston took the lead on 18 minutes when Ryan Grayson robbed the Sedgefield defender of the ball from a throw in and he carried the ball into the box before firing in a superb finish into the bottom right hand corner.
Sacriston took control of the game for the next 15 minutes and created plenty of promising situations from which to create chances in and around the Sedgefield penalty box but didn’t make any of these chances count. Grant Boyd had a right foot shot well saved during this time by the Sedgefield keeper.
Towards the end of the first half Sedgefield started to get back into the game and had joy down the left hand side and sure enough it was a move down that side that resulted in a cross coming into the box which Sacriston failed to clear and the ball fell to the Sedgefield player at the back post where he finished clinically into the bottom right hand corner with his left foot.
Sedgefield dominated the game at the start of the 2nd half and at times Sacriston were struggling to get out of they own half. On 46 minutes with Sedgefield’s first attack of the 2nd half a free kick from just outside the area was crossed in and a glancing header from 8 yards out cannoned away to safety of our crossbar.
Sedgefield continue to dominate possession and territory but didn’t create many clear cut chances and Sacriston still looked capable of creating chances on the break but we just couldn’t keep hold of the ball enough to use our attacking options to be effective.
Ryan Grayson who had an excellent first half wasn’t getting much service and was becoming less effective and Chris Wood was coming back more and more to help out the midfield and defence so in an effort to try and give us more of a threat going forward I brought on Greg Coates for Wood. Matthew Rudge came on with 20 minutes to go for his debut replacing Quinn with Solan going to right wing back and Rudge certainly put himself about winning some big tackles and he gave the team a real presence in midfield which was enabling us to finally get some possession.
The crunch part of the game came on 72 minutes when some excellent centre forward combination play from Sedgefield’s 2 forwards resulted in one of them getting through on goal when Marc Bladen brought him down a full 2 yards outside the box with Michael Frazer coming round on the cover. The referee decided to award a penalty from his position some 45 yards away on the centre circle which I found disgraceful, if you are going to give a penalty you have to be sure and a lot closer to the play and this was just 1 of a number of poor decisions during the match and I think premier league matches deserve better officiating than this. Brian Fairhurst converted the penalty shooting powerfully down the middle of the goal.
Ironically it took this goal for Sacriston to start playing well again and we gave it a real go in the last 15 minutes but couldn’t find an equalizer so ultimately this one big decision cost us the match. However we only had ourselves to blame for losing because it took us to long to get going in the 2nd half and only when we went behind did we show the desperation needed to try and get back into the game.
The referee only played 88 minutes during the game and 2 of these were spent by him deciding if he would carry on or not after seeming to have hurt his hamstring. Timing of a match on a stop watch is a basic requirement which during our games this season has not been met and this is becoming a worrying trend with some officials. I know it is hard to get referees’ but it is not a lot to ask for to get timings right particularly in close matches were every minute counts.
