In windy conditions and a pitch that should have had sheep grazing on it due to the length of the grass in some places and also Hedon Rangers inconsistency was another factor in a scrappy game. With ref Mr Porter also giving some very strange decisions this also didn’t help with the flow of the game.

St Andrews started much the brighter and could have taken the lead when Mike Leng was through on goal after not been given a blatant offside a superb tackle by Billy Melton prevented St Andrews taking the lead. St Andrews physical approach seemed to knock the stuffing out of any quality play and in the 20th min a very late tackle on Jamie McFarlane only gave St Andrews more opportunities to carry out more of their physical approach as ref Mr Porter didn’t seem the least interested in stopping any late challenges. His only concern during the first half was to over rule any decisions the linesman made. Hedon Rangers had several chances in the first half to take a lead with Mark Sansam going the close in the 25th min with a header that struck the bar. Shaun Thompson was getting though his usual tremendous amount of work up front for Hedon Rangers but he couldn’t find his goal scoring touch after Chris Walker had given him a chance in the 30th min when through on goal his shot was easily saved by Gary Ogrady in the St Andrews goal.

At half time manager Kenny Harrison and his assistant Steven Brough installed in his players to match the physical approach and to forget about the refs strange decisions. Unfortunately the players forgot to remember that at set pieces they must not loose their markers which were to give St Andrews both goals in the second half. The first in the 60th from a corner found Lee Nahar unmarked to head home after Pete Martin in the Hedon Rangers goal had pulled off a superb save. Five minutes later a similar corner found Shaun Day unmarked at the far post and although his shot was going well wide of the post Rob Fowler diverted the ball onto the post and into the net. Hedon Rangers brought on Damien Cane and Glen Adams to strengthen their attack. Youngster Matty Whithead was also given his first chance and he looks a bright prospect for the future. After a superb through ball from Damien Cane found Mark Sansam in his own half as St Andrews pushed forward the inept officials gave the strangest decision of the game giving him offside as he raced through on goal with only the keeper to beat. St Andrews were constantly wasting time by kicking the ball away on numerous occasions but this went unpunished and when Hedon Rangers attempted to increase the pace it was stopped again by the ref. A quick free kick by Chris Walker in the 75th would have given Glen Adams a chance but as the St Andrews player was only 1yrd away from the play he prevented the ball to be found by Glen. Mr Porter deemed that they shouldn’t have taken the free kick to quickly and it wasn’t the fact that the St Andrews player was only 1yrd from play!. However strong the players felt about the poor display from the officials and the state of the pitch Manager Kenny Harrison was right in saying that it was Hedon Rangers poor performance that was the reason they lost the game. Next Saturday game v Pocklington Town has been changed to Saltend after Pocklington request as their two other sides have been drawn at home in the cup.