Written by Jay Rowland

The Ramblers won out over Ashville 3-2 in soaking wet conditions last night (Tuesday).

Declan Swan's men were feeling confident after two wins on the bounce and welcomed Wirral side Ashville to Hind Heath Road in the two sides' first meeting at NWCFL level after Ashville's promotion last season.

Ashville themselves notched a 2-0 victory over league leaders Stockport Town only three days prior, so had plenty of reason to feel confident themselves.

Sandbach took an early lead in the second minute of play, when a Callum Chapman cross took a slight touch from Joshua Klein-Davies to flick past ex-Sandbach goalkeeper Michael Dixon into the far corner.

The striker jubilantly celebrated the goal, having now scored 5 goals in his last five appearances for the Ramblers.

The celebrations were short-lived however, with Ashville equalising only 3 minutes later. An unfortunate deflection from Liam Fitzpatrick fell kindly to striker Ben Greenop, who duly slotted it into the bottom left corner.

Sandbach were then forced into an early change, as Fitzpatrick hit the ground heavily after two Ashville players brought him down. He was substituted for Max Buckley-Benbow, and later taken to hospital with a suspected concussion.

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Klein-Davies thought he'd scored his second of the match after 35 minutes when he turned in a low cross at the near post but was flagged offside.

The Ramblers started the second half well and took the lead after 57 minutes through Stanley Tatters. Some wonderful passing play cut through an organised Ashville defence, culminating in Robbie Hatton's slick pass finding the run of Tatters, who curled it first-time into the bottom right corner.

Tatters turned provider less than two minutes after the restart to put Sandbach 3-1 up, as his low ball across the face of goal found striker Josh Oultram, who buried it into the net.

Hatton almost got himself on the scoresheet in the 76th minute when his surging run into the box ended with a powerful strike towards the far corner, beating the Ashville goalkeeper but not a desperately recovering defender, who blocked it behind for a corner.

Ashville scored in the 83rd minute to set up a grandstand finish when Mark Madden brought down a hopeful ball into the box before lashing home a well-struck volley.

Sandbach held firm in the final closing minutes to seal three points, moving them up to 8th in the league table.

The Ramblers are level with Stockport Georgians but have an inferior goal difference ahead of their trip to second-placed Wythenshawe Amateurs on Saturday.