Another poor performance made worse by both the long drive to darkest County Durham and because we should have been playing in the FA Cup if, like this season, last season we hadn’t had a poor start to the league which impacted on our points to game ratio. There were changes with all 4 defenders from Monday night being replaced and this included a debut on his return for Dan Bennett.

The Stan were 1^st to attack and got a corner after 2 minutes which was missed by Hoggins but Middleton put it just wide. Hoggins and Wright attacked together before Esh attacked and saw the ball deflected over for a corner. In 8 minutes Wright, who spent much of the game moaning to the referee, was fouled and his free kick went too far across the goal. There was a period of sustained Stan pressure with 4 Stan efforts and some good running by Paterson and he had a shot which was caught in 24 minutes. In 28 minutes Esh had their 1^st clear effort for 15 minutes when they hit the crossbar. Soon after they shot high and wide and in 31 minutes an Esh player had a headed effort which went across the goal.

The Stan were making hard work of things and the result could still go either way. In 33 minutes Esh had an attack cleared twice and they were being helped by some poor decision making by the referee. The Stan had their 1^st attack for 10 minutes in 37 minutes through Wright. Thirlaway had to go off injured after a bad tackle which saw the offender booked in 40^th minute and he was replaced by Anderson. The Stan attacked but Ball then had to make a good block. In the last minute of the first half a long ball into the box saw the advancing Anderson fall over which summed the half up while in injury time Esh attacked again.

Esh started the 2^nd half on the attack and Ball had to block. In 51 minutes Ball had to make an easy catch before Charmey blocked. The Stan countered and although there was an Esh handball and Anderson was fouled in the box nothing was given. In 53 minutes a Wright solo run some him shoot at the keeper rather than passing and soon after Anderson headed wide.

There were attacks at either end, although the half was relatively quiet, before an Esh player was sent off in 63 minutes for a 2^nd bookable offence. In 65 minutes Wright shot wide but 2 minutes later he sent a great ball to Paterson who made a great run but then shot at the keeper.

In 70 minutes things looked better when Wright’s free kick into the box saw Charmey’s good effort in the 6 yard box blocked by the keeper but the ball went back out to Wright on the edge of the box who blasted it through the crowd to give the Stan the lead. Esh then seemed to take more control of the game although in 76 minutes Wright sent a great ball to Hoggins which came to nothing and he was then replaced by Simpson. 2 minutes later and Wright shot at the keeper rather than pass which suggests he would be good on mastermind.

The Stan kept trying to attack but, even with a man advantage, the Stan were about to throw away their lead. An Esh free kick into the box was blocked then another attempted block led to a corner which resulted in a goalmouth scramble and the ball being forced over the line for 1-1.

From the restart, Sayer was brought down in the Esh box but instead of the penalty first indicated by the referee an earlier offside was given by the assistant referee. 2 minutes later and Wright made a great run to force a corner which was cleared. The ball came back in and Middleton headed wide. There was then a great move by Paterson which resulted in a corner and Wright’s effort from it was punched away before Middleton hit the post then the keeper had to punch away again. The Stan pressure continued but with no end product as the match finished with Anderson shooting wide.

This was a great result for Esh who celebrated after the final whistle by blasting ‘We are the Champions’ through their loudspeakers. For the Stan fans it was the 3^rd dreadful performance in a row that they had to endure. On the positive, the reserves won their 1^st league game 2-0 at home against Chemfica.

Stan Team: Ball, Stoddart, Sayer, Middleton, Bennett, Bailey, Thirlaway (Anderson 40), Charmey, Wright, Hoggins (Simpson), Paterson.

Unused Subs: Blackbourne, Allan, Imray.

Attendance 61.

Kevin Mochrie