Alphington Thirds - Sandford First Team football

SATURDAY, September 21 saw Sandford First team travel to Exwick in Exeter to play the return fixture in Division 6 of the Exeter and District Football League.

In their previous encounter, at the start of the season, Alphington took the points with a 0-1 win at the "ford”, so Sandford went looking for revenge.

The game was played at the Exwick Hub, which is an artificial 4G surface, not to most teams liking.

On a lovely sunny afternoon Sandford were the first to attack and Matt Baker shot wide after 2mins.

The away side took a long time adjusting to the strange surface and Alphington started to take control of the game.

After 10 minutes Lewis Mooney broke down the right wing but was ruled offside.

Alphington were now taking control and on 21 minutes a rare Sandford break saw another chance fall to Matt Baker, which the keeper saved.

On 22 minutes there was a water break due to the heat.

With the home side now having most of the attacking pocession "ford" keeper Charles Headley was called upon to keep Sandford from going behind.

On 35 minutes he made certain a goal stop by sticking his leg out.

Sandford had a few more chances before half-time, one falling to Lewis Mooney and another to Dom Cochran, but neither resulted in a goal.

Half-time arrived with the score at 0-0.

After a short break the game resumed with Sandford coming more into the game and, after 55 minutes, centre back Harry Stoneman headed just over from a corner.

On 61 minutes Ki Alexander was subbed and Henry Powell came on.

Another chance fell to Matt Baker on the 67 minutes but he headed over.

The game was now fast and furious, end-to-end and, in the last 20 minutes, Alphington had chance to score but hit the crossbar while Baz Mthunzi-Clark, who had replaced Dom Cochran, had a header canon of the crossbar at the other which came back to him and resulted in a goal kick.

The home side then scored on a breakaway but it was again out for offside.

The game came to a close with both sides failing to score but not for the like of trying. Full-time score 0-0 .

On Saturday Sandford are home to Exeter International FC, ko 3pm.

Come on down and support your local side side. 

A J H.