This match was played in freezing cold conditions which made playing entertaining and attractive football very difficult. I am just happy that on the day we got the result we needed and we now have a quarter-final tie to look forward to sometime in the new year.
Sacriston again had many players missing but a number of the players who have played in recent weeks have now put a run of games together and as a result these lads are beginning to develop an understanding and their performances are improving week on week.
Now to the match and Sacriston started the brighter and on 5 minutes nearly scored when John Harrison got through but his shot was well saved by the Tudhoe keeper.
To be honest the first half didn’t see that much goalmouth action and although Sacriston were controlling the game in terms of possession and territory we failed to create many clear cut chances and at times our passing was poor. In fact from our own corner where we messed up a short corner routine we nearly conceded when Tudhoe hit us on the break but Potts in the Sacriston goal came out quickly to deny the Tudhoe player with a good save.
The only other threat came from a brief flurry of Tudhoe corners but Andrew Solan did particularly well on one occasion to head clear from his goal line at the near post after the wind had taken the kick dangerously close to our goal.
Our one piece of good play for the first half thankfully led to the first goal on 40 minutes. A long ball was flicked on by the head of Harrison towards his on running strike partner McCormack and he ran at the heart of the Tudhoe defence before holding on to the ball waiting for the run of Harrison to his left and McCormack played a perfect pass right into the path of Harrison who ran on to the ball perfectly before firing in a hard first time right footed shot straight into the bottom right hand corner of the net from 15 yards out.
Greg Coates came on for Jacob Horner at half time and during the 2nd half Coates got into some great positions to score having at least 3 or 4 chances put he just couldn’t find the net. Sacriston played better in the 2nd half and apart from one chance Tudhoe had where Potts made a good save were in control of the game but that 2nd goal didn’t come until late in the match.
Matty Rudge nearly capped an excellent display from midfield with a goal when he got on the end of a cross with a well taken shot from 12 yards out but the Tudhoe keeper made a brilliant save diving away to his right to keep it out.
Then on 77 minutes we finally got the 2nd goal which made the game safe. Gavin McCormack received the ball close to the half way line and he went on a blistering run which carried him all the way into the box from where he rifled in a right footed shot at the near post.
Sacriston did enough to get through and on a day like this that is all that really matters and I do feel that if Tudhoe had scored or had upped their game we could have stepped it up a level ourselves. However this is no excuse for a lack of work rate which 4 or 5 of our players showed at different times today. If it wasn’t for the excellent all action display of Robert Draper who at times was doing 3 peoples running we wouldn’t have won today. The man was just everywhere and he did everything but score in the match. Our back 4 for the main part were very solid with O’Brien playing particularly well and he even did well on the ball enjoying the fact that he had a little more time than usual to pick out passes. Grant Boyd slotted in alongside him well and Andrew Solan played superbly again at right back. Stuart Fenton at left back stuck to his defensive responsibilities well right until the end and it was nice to keep a clean sheet. McCormack played very well again and he made the game safe with his timely goal. Harrison had a steady game and took his goal well.
We have Coxhoe WMC at home in two weeks time on derby day in the league and it would be nice to finish the year of with a win.
