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Whitchurch Alport FCSandbach United
0
2
Whitchurch Alport FC v Sandbach United
Callum Bradke19 Mar 2018 - 21:45
Match report
Alport 0 Sandbach United 2
Alport missed the opportunity to keep the pressure on the top two with a damaging defeat at home to Sandbach United. The visitors scored a goal in each half but their margin of victory could have been even wider with a gritty display that Alport had no answer to on the night. And the Reds’ misery was compounded when Ben Mills missed Alport’s fourth penalty kick of the season, with a chance that came quickly after Matthew Pearson had lashed in a dangerous Ryan Cattermole corner.
Skipper Simon Everall missed his first league game for the club since signing in the summer of 2016 after suffering stomach pains which kept him in hospital. And the diagnosis from Leighton was brutal with Everall ruled out for rest of the season with an appendix operation quickly scheduled.
Whitchurch had to change personnel but with Mills and Arron Johns starved of quality service with a swirling icy wind rattling through Yockings, Alport could ill afford to look the proverbial gift horse in the mouth. But they did just that within six minutes of Pearson’s goal. The referee awarded a penalty after spotting a handball in the box, and with their previous three penalty kicks all missed, the bulk of the 202 crowd twitched nervously as Mills strolled forward. He went for placement over power and Ryan Moss plunged to his left to parry the weak kick away.
The keeper would barely be worked again right up to the closing stages of the match when Sean Griffiths put a bit of mud on Moss’ mitts. By then though, the game was well over. James Kirby gobbled up the kind of chance that strikers go to bed dreaming of midway through the second half, and the visitors had missed a similar chance on the hour as they countered menacingly. On that occasion Elliot Ledwards cleared off the line and Kirby rattled the post late on with Alport pouring forward in vain.
The only blight perhaps on United’s evening was a red card administered to Kris Stockton with 10 minutes to go. Their celebrations were akin to winning the league, the cup and the Eurovision Song Contest. But such is Alport’s standing now in the North West Counties, that they are the club that everyone aspires to be.
But the biggest downer of all for the home side, came with the news that their most influential player wouldn’t kick a ball again for between two and four months.
Alport missed the opportunity to keep the pressure on the top two with a damaging defeat at home to Sandbach United. The visitors scored a goal in each half but their margin of victory could have been even wider with a gritty display that Alport had no answer to on the night. And the Reds’ misery was compounded when Ben Mills missed Alport’s fourth penalty kick of the season, with a chance that came quickly after Matthew Pearson had lashed in a dangerous Ryan Cattermole corner.
Skipper Simon Everall missed his first league game for the club since signing in the summer of 2016 after suffering stomach pains which kept him in hospital. And the diagnosis from Leighton was brutal with Everall ruled out for rest of the season with an appendix operation quickly scheduled.
Whitchurch had to change personnel but with Mills and Arron Johns starved of quality service with a swirling icy wind rattling through Yockings, Alport could ill afford to look the proverbial gift horse in the mouth. But they did just that within six minutes of Pearson’s goal. The referee awarded a penalty after spotting a handball in the box, and with their previous three penalty kicks all missed, the bulk of the 202 crowd twitched nervously as Mills strolled forward. He went for placement over power and Ryan Moss plunged to his left to parry the weak kick away.
The keeper would barely be worked again right up to the closing stages of the match when Sean Griffiths put a bit of mud on Moss’ mitts. By then though, the game was well over. James Kirby gobbled up the kind of chance that strikers go to bed dreaming of midway through the second half, and the visitors had missed a similar chance on the hour as they countered menacingly. On that occasion Elliot Ledwards cleared off the line and Kirby rattled the post late on with Alport pouring forward in vain.
The only blight perhaps on United’s evening was a red card administered to Kris Stockton with 10 minutes to go. Their celebrations were akin to winning the league, the cup and the Eurovision Song Contest. But such is Alport’s standing now in the North West Counties, that they are the club that everyone aspires to be.
But the biggest downer of all for the home side, came with the news that their most influential player wouldn’t kick a ball again for between two and four months.
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