For large parts of this match we were much the better team and played much the better football but again we came away with nothing and this is very difficult to take in so soon after the game finishing.
Sedgefield started the game well and put us under pressure and after already having gone close once took the lead on 11 minutes when the midfield player trapped the ball brilliantly from a clearance down field and two incisive passes later our defence had been cut open and the number 10 finished superbly into the far corner of the net.
This rocked Sacriston for a while but we did look very threatening going forward ourselves and we were creating promising situations and plenty of goal scoring opportunities. Sedgefield had 2 good forwards and a clever playmaker in the little number 6 who was nullified by Graeme Embleton towards the end of the first half.
The first half hour belonged to Sedgefield but in the last 15 minutes of the first half Sacriston really began to get a foothold in the game and by this time we were dominating. Greg Coates missed a couple of great opportunities to score and he also set other chances up but we just couldn’t apply the final finish. Graeme Embleton had a free kick saved on 40 minutes.
Then on the stroke of half time Greg Coates won a free kick on the right hand side of the box which Graeme Embleton expertly dispatched into the top left hand corner of the net to keep up his amazing start to the season.
Sacriston played brilliantly during the early part of the 2nd half and but for the very occasional break forward by Sedgefield were totally dominant and it was during this period of time that we created several excellent chances to score but we just didn’t take them. Anthony Ward had the best chance when he did well to take the long pass from Embleton into his stride and he bore down on goal opened up his body shape to curl the ball to the keeper’s right but his shot went just past the post. We played excellent free flowing passing football and we were honestly a joy to watch with Embleton & Draper knitting the play together superbly with Gregory but we were made to pay for this on 70 minutes when Sedgefield broke away and Grant Boyd fouled the Sedgefield player on the edge of the box and gave away a free kick 18 yards form goal. Brian Fairhurst took the free kick and Potts got a good hand to the shot but couldn’t keep it out and we were 2-1 down.
Sacriston responded well and kept coming forward in search of the equalizer. With 10 minutes to go Thornton & Wood came on to replace Coates & Horner who had a very steady game in his first competitive start for the Cricket Club. We went to a 4-3-3 formation and although we were leaving ourselves vulnerable at the back we were getting more players forward and created chances to score the best of which fell to Sean Gregory who was put through the middle one on one with the keeper who closed him down quickly and forced Gregory wide on the angle and the chance had gone.
Sedgefield did come close to closing the game out when we were caught on the break with men well forward but we had to go all out in the final few minutes and credit to the lads for the way we kept going. This was hard to take because we played more than well enough to win on the day and at times we made a very good side look ordinary but we didn’t take our chances when we were bang on top and this has been the same old story to often this season.
