Sandbach United 2 Alport 1
 
Alport fell to a third successive defeat on their travels at promotion rivals Sandbach. In a scrappy affair, the game only came to life in the closing stages with all three goals coming in the last 12 minutes of normal time. Arron Johns gave the visitors a 78th minute lead but United finished the stronger and goals from Ryan Alcock and Josh Lane saw the three points stay in Cheshire.
 
The match didn’t live up to expectations in many ways with both sides desperate not to lose. In a pretty non-eventful first half, it was Whitchurch who came closest to scoring when Joe Howell somehow lifted his shot against the bar from inside the 6 yard box. It was an amazing let off for Sandbach and might well have changed the whole complexities of the match. Former United player, Chris Jackson, saw an attempt from outside the box bounce a yard wide but there was little else to get excited about.
 
After the turnaround, Dean Twigg’s 25 yard free kick was well gathered by Ryan Moss and Alcock forced Danny Read into a fine save just past the hour. Soon after, Read made a superb stop to deny Jordan Davies so it was somewhat against the run of play when Johns’ deflected effort looped up over Moss and into the net to give the Reds the lead.
 
Sandbach responded within five minutes and seconds after seeing a shot bounce out off the inside of the post, Alcock equalised - incredibly via both uprights! It was a devastating blow for Alport but it was to get much worse as Lane buried his shot into the far bottom corner just two minutes later.
 
Despite seven minutes of additional time, the home side saw out the game to strike another blow to Alport’s automatic promotion dreams.