(Written by Jay Rowland and Daniel Needham)

With the Ramblers keen to hit the ground running for the new season, nothing would be better than a winning start at home to Rocester.

Newly appointed captain Jordan Stafford started alongside four debutants in Will Booth, Adrian Kandeke, Joel Jones and Matthew Russell. Speaking to manager Declan Swan before the match, he said the squad were "excited to do something special this season".

Sandbach started confidently, keeping possession whilst registering several attempts on goal. The attacking duo of George West and Joel Jones were linking up excellently yet could not find the back of the net in the opening first 15 minutes.

However, Sandbach's assertive start hit a stumbling block when Rocester scored against the run of play. Goalkeeper Eric Merner was found out of position after an attempt to palm away a dangerous cross, which gave Rocester forward Greg Large a simple finish into an unguarded net.

Despite the setback, Sandbach responded well and continued their dominance, hitting the woodwork less than 60 seconds after the restart when a bullet header from Ryan Rogers struck the post.

With Rocester staving off wave after wave of Sandbach attacks, their resistance was eventually broken in the 40th minute. Will Booth drilled a cross into a crowded penalty area and found Jones to hit the back of the net with his close-range strike.

Only 10 minutes into the second half, Sandbach finally got the goal to give them a deserved lead, on the balance of play.

More positive play from Jones resulted in Russell collecting the ball just inside the box. Rather than attempt a shot, he cleverly backheeled a pass to an unmarked West, who drilled a low strike into the bottom right corner.

Russell was pulling the strings offensively in the second period, demonstrating excellent vision to pick out the attacking runs of West and Jones whilst attempting a few strikes of his own.

He got his goal in the 67th minute after picking up a loose ball 25 yards out and seeing enough space to shoot. He caught the strike perfectly, driving a wicked shot into the bottom left corner that looked like it had beaten the keeper the moment it left his boot.

Russell's excellent strike seemed to knock the wind out of the Romans, and Sandbach sensed the opportunity to kill the game off.

The Ramblers were awarded a penalty only 10 minutes after the goal when a Booth shot from 20 yards was deemed to have struck a defender's arm. West stepped up and never looked like missing, smashing the ball into the bottom left corner despite the Rocester keeper guessing the right way.

Jones received a stadium-wide ovation as he left the field in the 79th minute to be replaced by Stan Tatters. Only 5 minutes after coming on, Tatters got on the score sheet in remarkable fashion. After tenaciously driving down the left flank with the ball, he charged into the box and skipped past a desperate Rocester tackle before firing into the back of the net.

Rogers got in on the act in the 90th minute after a wonderful first-time through ball from West set Rogers away for a 1 on 1 with the keeper, and he slotted his strike underneath him to get his goal after striking the woodwork twice before.

As the full-time whistle blew, Sandbach celebrated their big win in front of a fantastic Ramblers crowd, who were treated to an outstanding game of football.

Declan Swan said after the game "We went behind early on, maybe a little bit of first game nerves. But after that, we settled down quite quickly and started to play our game. We've got a lot of quality and in the end it was comfortable."

Sandbach now look to tomorrow night (Tuesday) for their next fixture against recently promoted Stockport Georgians, who lost 3-1 on the opening day to Brocton.