ON Saturday, January 10, Sandford Football Team travelled to Lifton in West Devon for a third round tie in the A & S Paving Intermediate Cup.

Not knowing anything about the club, Sandford were a bit apprehensive about how strong their opponents were.

Lifton kicked off and soon found out that their opposition were a stronger outfit. After one minute Sam Reeves had a shot on goal, "ford" were missing one of their central defenders in Tyler Morgan Hugget who was deemed not fit play.

On six minutes of constant pressure the away side opened their account with Matt Baker scoring 0-1.

Sandford were in complete control and on nine minutes made it 0-2 through James Durand.

The home side never really troubled "ford" keeper Charles Headley at all.

On 16 minutes Matt Baker made it 0-3.

After 30 minutes Lifton had their first chance on the "ford" goal but shot over.

More Sandford pressure lead to them making the score 0-4 after 31 minutes, then a mistake in the Sandford defence gave Lifton their one and only chance of the half which they took, 1-4.

Half-time arrived with Sandford in a commanding position.

The second half saw Sandford kicked off and a few minutes later Matt Baker was on hand to score his fourth goal of the game, 1-5.

Fair play to Lifton, they kept fighting, but it was a lost cause and on 59 minutes Matt Baker was again on hand to score Sandford’s sixth goal of the game and his fifth. The final score was 1-6.

In heavy conditions, I must mention all the other members of our team and subs who completely dominated the game from start to finish. Well done to all a brilliant result after a long journey.

Sandford’s next match is in the league on January 24 at home to Phoenix United.

AJH