Daisy Hill 1-2 Cheadle Town

A distinctly off-colour Cheadle smuggled three points today with this 2-1 away win at New Sirs.

I'll make one thing clear before I continue: this match was utterly dreadful, made lighter by it descending into mild insanity and farce in the last 15 minutes. More about that later.

The first 45 minutes of play was littered with half-chances for Cheadle and just the one chance for Daisy Hill - which they scored with after 24 minutes. Confusion between Peter Mellor and the Cheadle defence resulted in a 'Daisy striker having a clear run in on goal and an open net.

Cheadle just weren't getting into their stride at all and were upset by the forced substitution of midfield engine Andy MacDonald who limped off to be replaced by Andy Lindon. Mike Myers should have buried a chance when put through on 34 minutes, but that was the only clear-cut chance that Cheadle could muster. As they trudged off at half-time a goal down, it surely had to get better.

It did, a bit, but when a goal-bound Deano header was cleared off the line on the 48th minute, we then started to wonder if it was going to be Cheadle's day at all. The team were getting the basics wrong and the game as a whole wasn't being helped by an incompetent referee who, at one point, seemed to be quite card-happy where Cheadle players were concerned.

With the match limping towards what seemed a certain 0-1 defeat for Cheadle, it entered into the realms of chaos.

As the 76th minute ticked over a 'Daisy defender made a brilliant one-handed save on the line to keep out a Cheadle chance. As he trudged off the field after being red-carded we saw out of the corner of our eyes the green-shirted figure of our 'keeper Peter Mellor charging forward to take the penalty. He completed his task with consummate ease to level the scores.

Then we heard the words "Daisy Hill are down to nine men"; the 'Daisy 'keeper had been sent off for dissent. All of a sudden Cheadle were given the chance to snatch a game they never looked like winning.

And take it they did, although it took virtually the last kick of the game to do so. After laying siege to the 'Daisy net and having a Brocky chip go just wide and various goalmouth scrambles coming to nothing, Johnny Hussain picked out a ball from the right to lash home from six yards out.

We can count ourselves lucky today. We'll just be thankful for the three points and move on....

Photos from the day can be seen by clicking here

TEAM: Mellor, Clarke, B Roberts, Fellows, A Roberts, Brocklehurst, Riley, MacDonald (Lindon), Myers, Martin (James), Hussain. Subs: Moore, James, Lindon