Sankey Arms started their Dennis Scholes cup campaign with a match against premiers league side, Turf & Feather at Birchwood High School. Usual left-back Scott Deans was left on the bench and replaced by Dan Heavey with Lee Lester playing at right-back. As the game kicked off Turf & Feather earned a throw in, from which they crossed the ball in and it was headed into the back of Sankey Arms’ net with only one minute played. Turf & Feather thought that this game would be a walk over, but Sankey Arms were determined to give them a good game. Sankey Arms got together and got a chance to play their football. Sankey got themselves involved and started to run Turf & Feather ragged, but couldn’t get any quality shots off to test the goalkeeper. Around 20 minutes into the game Sankey Arms earned themselves a corner, as the ball came in it was cleared away, but only as far as Dan Heavey, who taken a shot which hit the post and came out to Matt Foster who also shot, which the goalkeeper saved and the ball came to Paul Foster who’s shot was also blocked, it was unclear as to how many shots were fired but it must have been in the thousands, a proper goal-mouth scramble. Turf & Feather then went on the break and Sankey found themselves in some defensive trouble with nobody at the back except goalkeeper, Chris Bell, who was 1-on-1 with the striker. It looked as though it would be 2-0, but Bell made a fantastic save to prevent the striker from scoring. At the 30 minute mark Mike Gallagher found himself in an advantageous position inside the Turf & Feather box, as he turned to shoot he was tripped by a poor sliding challenge, everybody, including Turf & Feathers players, saw that it was a foul except the referee, the frustration that this created led to Mike Gallagher and Neil Wearing being booked for dissent. Just before half-time Sankey Arms had a corner, Matt Foster almost reached the ball, but he was dragged to the ground, but again another penalty claim was turned down by the referee, and this time Matt Foster was booked for dissent, although he claims that he didn’t say anything to him. With the half finished Sankey Arms new that they were the better team but they just couldn’t put the ball away after numerous attempts.
Shortly after the second-half started, Mike Gallagher was brought down unfairly in the area, but this time the referee couldn’t deny Sankey the penalty. Dave Morgan was the person over the ball, he stepped up and made the keeper guess the wrong way to equalise the match in the 48th minute. After the goal Neil Wearing and Tom Hansen were taken from the pitch and replaced by Stu Wellstead and Gaz Boldsworth. Turf & Feather then upped their game and started to put Sankey under pressure, but they didn’t pose any real problems for Sankey’s back four. When Paul Foster dispossessed a player from the ball he searched for Stu Wellstead with a long ball, Stu Wellstead’s first touched led to a goal, but it was a slow start for him as he was on the pitch for a whole 11 minutes before he scored, a personnel worst for him. One minute later though Wellstead redeemed himself for his horrendous start by beating about three Turf & Feather defenders and then beating the keeper to put Sankey Arms 3-1 up against one of the best sides in Warrington. On the 79th minute Wellstead came close to scoring again, but Sankey Arms were awarded another penalty because the last defender handled the ball on the line, despite the rulebook saying so, the referee decided to give the defender a yellow card rather than a red one. Dave Morgan again stepped up to the spot, this provoked The ‘Ade Griffiths’ Yeti to claim that; “if Sankey were 14-0 up he still wouldn’t let anyone else take a penalty,” but Dave Morgan is an expert at this and again sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to give Sankey a 4-1 advantage. The now tired Mike Gallagher was substituted for Mike Bentley, a goalkeeper who was now playing up front. Mike Bentley managed to have more shots in 10 minutes than the whole squad did in the other 80. Of course, Mike Bentley didn’t score, he managed to miss an open net and several other sitters. Some people thought he was outstanding, although I think it was outstanding he poor his shooting was. As the final whistle blew Sankey Arms celebrated as they went on in another cup.
