By Jay Rowland

After picking up only one point from a possible six, Declan Swan needed a statement from his side as they welcomed 19th-placed Cheadle Heath Nomads to south Cheshire.

George West and Eric Merner missed the game through injury, so Ollie Jones marked his first Sandbach start after coming off the bench at New Mills.

A nimble and efficient midfielder, Jones made waves as part of Sandbach Reserves last season before impressing the coaching team enough in pre-season to earn a place in the first team squad.

It took until the 26th minute before either side saw any real chances, but Nomads were left frustrated after their goal-bound shot was hooked off the line by a recovering Matty Russell.

Despite struggling to put together any attacks of note, Sandbach scored moments before half-time through Rory Roberts.

The defender met a fantastic Will Booth corner with his head, sending it back on target and over the line despite a desperate attempted clearance from Nomads.

Roberts wheeled away in celebration at his first goal of the season, as he put the Ramblers ahead heading into the break.

In the second half, Nomads started the stronger side, and again had a potential goal foiled by Russell in the 60th minute.

After a corner wasn't cleared by the hosts, a wild effort was poked through a sea of bodies before being punted away from goal by a well-positioned Russell.

Joel Jones scored the Ramblers second goal of the afternoon after applying the final touch to an excellent Sandbach move on 70 minutes.

Swan had changed his side at half-time to deploy Callum Chapman at right-back instead of left-back, and his link-up with winger Harry Cain had already threatened a couple of times before Chapman drove into the box with the ball at his feet.

Despite being presented with an excellent shooting chance, he unselfishly passed across the face of goal to Jones who fired into an empty net, doubling Sandbach's lead.

Nine minutes later, the scoring was completed by Chapman as the Ramblers put the game out of sight. Cain carried the ball far up the pitch with some tenacious dribbling before a short passing move was worked back out to Chapman in a similar position to his earlier assist.

This time, he eyed up the bottom left corner before hammering a powerful strike past the keeper and into the net.

Sandbach showed some resolute defending in the final minutes as they repelled Nomads' attempts to spark an unlikely comeback before the full-time whistle blew and confirmed a vital three points for the Ramblers.

Speaking after the game, Swan said "They came at us [in the second half] and I think we were well equipped to deal with that. Some of the goals we scored were outstanding and maybe we could have had more.

Cheadle Heath are one of the hardest-working teams in the league, so I knew we had to match that and I think we did".

Sandbach travel to Stafford Town next, for a midweek evening fixture on Tuesday (September 6th).