Following another fortnight without football Sacriston returned to action on a sun drenched welfare ground and had almost a full complement of players to choose from.
Sacriston lining up in their damp mustard kits prepared for the game in the now usual routine of manually de-icing the kop end of the pitch, to ease the ref’s fears that it was unplayable.
With Assistant Gaffer Fozzy’s ‘6 cup finals to go’ battle cry ringing fresh in the players ears, the game started off relatively slowly with both sides cancelling each other out, but after 15 minutes or so Sacriston were starting to get on the ball more and put some pressure on the opposition.
Midway through the first half Sacriston took the lead following some excellent work from Luke and David, the former playing a beautiful cross field ball into the path of Winter who controlled and fired a powerful shot that was too hot to handle for the keeper at the near post.
Sacriston were now in control of the game and extended their lead 10 minutes before the half; gaffer Sanderson played a neat pass into the feet of Renwick who turned the big centre half on sixpence and blasted into the bottom corner clinically from the edge of the box.
Half time came and Sacriston were in a familiar position to recent weeks with a healthy lead over the away side. The second half begun and the butter boys continued to look comfortable, with the midfield three of Ben, Gav and Finch controlling the proceedings, with Finch being very effective in neutralising the threat of Abson, who was identified as a key man for Ushaw prior to kick off.
The back four led by a fleshy bearded Captain Birdseye were also having a good game resulting in a quieter game for Davies who was alert off his line on set pieces and balls over the top but didn’t have too many saves to make.
Sacriston then made a number of changes throughout the team and time was ticking away nicely with the game seemingly getting away from Ushaw Moor, but with just under 20 minutes to play the away side pulled a goal back courtesy of a very soft goal direct from a corner and in at the near post.
Following this goal Luke then picked up a yellow card and the wee fella could probably consider himself lucky to still be on the pitch, with the number 10 having dived embarrassingly for a penalty just moments earlier.
With the last 15 minutes potentially becoming a nervy affair, Fozzy’s faggots didn’t waste any time restoring their two goal lead, with Luke bursting in behind the defence and forcing a good stop from the keeper, Renwick was on hand to pick up the rebound, take on a defender and fire across the face of goal to the majestic Mordue, who still had plenty to do from three yards out; sexy Chris then analysed the tiny section of the goal to aim at, and from the acutest of angles caressed the ball delicately into the back of net, before ripping his shirt off to reveal his sculptured body, that melted the hearts of Sacriston’s female following (and Pissy/Shitty Renwick).
The last 10 minutes were then very comfortable for Sacriston and they probably should have made it 4 when Adam Wilson was presented with an open goal from one yard out, centre of goal; unfortunately the young kitten didn’t have the composure of the beautiful Mordue and dragged his effort wide, leaving him on 0 goals for the campaign.
Man of the match went to Finch who did his job excellently and was instrumental in reducing any threat the opposition had, but the whole team also put in a solid performance across the park.
1 cup final down, 5 more to go for the Icemen, who head to the Riverside next week for a tough game away to last season’s title rivals The Britannia.
