Sacriston gave it all they could but were edged out by a single goal against Pelton ROAB in the Alan Smith third round match. The pitch was in perfect condition for two good foot balling sides and it did not take long for Sacriston to take the lead when after five minutes, a good cross from Burn found Renwick six yards out who headed into the back of the net. Ten minutes had gone when Pelton had there first chance after Peake was adjudged to have clipped the Pelton right winger in the area, which looked a very harsh decision as he went to ground far to easy and would not have gone a miss in the Premier league by some of the foreign players. Pelton captain Graver stepped up and Potts saved well to his right and the defence cleared for a corner.
Both sides were creating chances with Potts equal to whatever was thrown at him in the Sacriston goal, Sacriston were counter attacking on the break and Renwick was showing his class up front bringing people into the game and then working as hard as ever by winning it back. The most bizarre incident came when Sacriston were on the attack thirty yards from goal when the referee decided to stop play for no reason whatsoever just so he could speak to two players with both players being confused about it. Instead of giving the ball back to Sacriston the referee give it to the Pelton keeper who then proceeded to punt the ball long and all of the Sacriston defence missed it and allowed the Pelton player to knock it past Potts. This was just one of the strange decisions in the match which no one in the ground had any idea, although Sacriston should have defended it with ease and not allowed a long sixty yard punt to travel to the striker for an easy finish.
The second half saw Pelton dominate more and they took the lead after fifty eight minutes when they broke down the left and after a scramble Graver knocked the ball into the corner. Sacriston did get back into the game when Peake scored direct from a free kick twenty five yards, the ball into the box looked like a cross though no one else touched it and left the keeper flat footed and the ball sailed into the top corner.
Ten minutes later Pelton scored the winning goal when Winter missed kicked his clearance and the ball fell to the dangerous Mickle who found himself one on one with Potts who managed to save the initial shot, unluckily it landed straight to Graver who hit it first time from twelve yards out into the empty goal.
Sacriston pushed and pushed but did not manage another shot at goal and Pelton came away with a hard fought victory and they knew had been in the game. The performance show what Sacriston WMC can do against one of the top teams in the Premier league, with no game next week the squad will be looking forward to there County Cup game away to Hartlepool Chesters on Sunday 14th October. It looks like a mini bus will be put on by the club for the players, any players wishing to stay after the match please contact John Chapman as needs to know number ASAP.
