Following a difficult run of form recently, Declan Swan’s men looked to turn their fortunes around heading into a month of cup fixtures. Four back-to-back cup games fill the month of October for the Ramblers, and up first was the Edward Case Cup against fellow NWCFL South side Cheadle Town. However, it was an injury ravaged Sandbach side that took to the field on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Cheshire. With Lewis Barker nearing match fitness after a long injury layoff, Swan also had to contend with the loss of Will Booth to injury, whilst Jordan Stafford and Liam Fitzpatrick served suspensions.

Cheadle opened the scoring after 8 minutes when Eric Merner rushed out of goal and brought down the advancing forward, before the penalty was driven into the net by Patrick Davin.

The visitors began to dominate proceedings and scored their second through Ryan Usher after 19 minutes. After a promising Sandbach attack broke down, a pinpoint long ball set Usher through on goal, and he duly slotted under Merner to double his side’s advantage.

After surviving Cheadle pressure, Sandbach began to come into the game and pulled one back on 42 minutes. Joshua Klein-Davies worked the ball excellently into the box, before curling a wonderful finish off the far post to halve the deficit.

Cheadle restored their two-goal lead nine minutes into the second half. After an erroneous pass in midfield from Sandbach, the visitors quickly broke forward in numbers to leave Merner with no chance as Jack McConnell swept home.

After some changes from Swan in the second half, including the introduction of Harry Burgess for his Sandbach debut, the hosts looked stronger going forward and pulled another goal back in the 72nd minute, with Klein-Davies notching his second of the game. After a remarkable run and cross from Stanley Tatters, the forward met the ball with his head to bring his side within one goal once more.

Martin Pilkington scored Cheadle’s fourth in the 79th minute to put the game almost out of sight for the Ramblers, after another counterattack caught Sandbach out defensively and punished them.

Two minutes later, the goal of the afternoon set up a nervy finale. After good work from substitute Tyler Barnes, his pass to Cain was deftly flicked into the path of Tatters. The midfielder took a touch before striking a fantastic finish into the top left corner.

The match became end-to-end, with Cheadle looking to kill off the tie whilst Sandbach threw men forward desperately looking for an equaliser. However, despite relentless pressure from the Ramblers in additional time, the Cheadle defence stood firm and held on to secure passage into the next round.

Sandbach now turn their attention to their fixture against National League’s Altrincham on Tuesday 11th October, in the Cheshire Senior Cup.