Dylan Fitzgerald scored the only goal in an ill-tempered affair at Hind Heath Road.

Sandbach new signing Matthew Sumner made his debut in the starting line-up as Andy Hockenhull made two changes, as Matt Pearson also came into the side.

Billy Buckley and Callum Chapman were both unavailable for the fixture and dropped out of the side.

The home side started brightly, with some great defending preventing a superb Aaron Knight cross from finding Bobbie McDonnell.

The visitors then blocked a Kieran O'Connell header off the line-up before desperate defending did enough to prevent shots from Sumner and Knight finding the back of the net.

Knight drew a fantastic save from Ross Heywood after 18 minutes when he hit a thunderous strike on target, but a great one-handed save turned the effort over the bar.

Sandbach then had big calls for a penalty when Sean Moscrop seemed to be pushed over in the box, but the referee deemed the challenge fair and play continued.

The previous meeting between these sides last season was a feisty encounter, and that side of the game reared its head for the first time when Jake Dunford received a yellow card for a very late slide on Robbie Hatton after half an hour.

A brief melee led by visiting captain Aaron Fleming was quickly dispersed and the football resumed.

On the stroke of halftime, O'Connell directed another header on target and drew a wonderful reaction save from Heywood to keep the scores level entering the break.

Abbey Hey started the second half better and scored the goal after 47 minutes when a deflected clearance fell perfectly for Dylan Fitzgerald to put into the back of the net.

Sandbach had another strong shout for a penalty dismissed on the hour mark, when substitute Jack Hart was wrestled onto the floor off the ball, but the Ramblers pleas fell on deaf ears as the referee waved play on. McDonnell then came close to levelling proceedings with a rasping near-post drive that whistled narrowly wide.

As time started to go in favour of the visitors, they prevented Sandbach from gaining any real momentum with a series of fouls and tackles.

The hosts brightest threat going forward in the final period was substitute Amadou Doumbouya, but he went down requiring treatment with two minutes to go after a late tackle from Darryl Grant after the young winger had been flagged offside.

The game became a procession of fouls in the last few minutes, as late tackles on O'Connell and Pearson threatened to see the game spill out into chaos.

Deep into injury time, a header from Pearson flew narrowly over the bar, and the referee blew for the final time to confirm defeat for Sandbach.

The Ramblers drop down to fourth in the league after their first defeat of the season, before they travel to Abbey Hulton on Monday 30th August.