By Jay Rowland

Two red cards were the icing on a disappointing cake for Sandbach, as they lost 2-0 against Maine Road.

After the enthralling midweek victory over Stafford Town the previous Tuesday, Sandbach had a week to prepare following the unfortunate passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who was honoured with an impeccably observed minute's silence before kick-off.

The home side started positively, and almost found themselves one goal ahead when Ryan Rogers received the ball from a clever George West pass and shot. The Maine Road goalkeeper parried it well and was then relieved to see a Josh Klein-Davies rebound fly across the face of goal and out for a goal kick.

Maine Road scored their first chance of the game after 18 minutes, when a Ben Mooney header was completely uncontested in the box and beat the dive of Joel Dovey.

Neither side mustered another chance in a largely uninspiring first half. The first real chance of the second half fell for Sandbach, when a delightful cross from Niall Cope was headed over the bar by Stan Tatters.

Sandbach then went down to 10 men in the 76th minute after a late challenge from captain Jordan Stafford was deemed to be out of control by the referee, and after quelling an aggressive melee from the visiting side on Stafford, he brandished the red card.

Five minutes later, Liam Fitzpatrick was fouled when attacking down the left flank. After going down heavily, the referee then showed the fullback a straight red card for a perceived kick whilst being tackled, compounding Sandbach's misery and giving the Cheshire side a two-man disadvantage.

Maine Road then took advantage of the space allowed to them by the 9 men of Sandbach and scored deep into added time through Yousuf Abdullahi.

A downbeat Declan Swan commented after the game "We got a red card at a very bad time in the game as it looked like we were pressing on to get that goal.

"We just didn't have the quality in the final third tonight, we were missing a few big players tonight as well which made it harder.

"It wasn't good enough tonight, but we have a fantastic changing room so we just need to react positively and go and get a good result at Cheadle Town on Saturday".