Peterborough Northern Star v Sun Sports      22nd October 2016        FA Vase First Rd

Sun Sports went into the second round of the FA Vase in style on Saturday, and not just because of the executive coach that was hired!
The trip to Peterborough was somewhat uneventful, which the same could not be said about the match.
Northern Star steamed into an early lead when the ball was laid off for Cardin Pierre-Liverpool who hit the ball with all his might into the Sun net.
Unperturbed by this setback, the Sun players dusted themselves down and got on the job in hand.
Andy Brennan was sent flying by a PNS defender but the referee decided from about 16 feet away that although it was a foul it was not to be a penalty and a free kick was given.
Andy Brennan took the free kick which sailed just over the bar.
The PNS number 11 was certainly the main man to watch as he got through the Sun defence defence a couple of times in the first half lying the ball off to other team mates who wasted their shots.
Tommy Walsh then gave Don David the opportunity to grab an equaliser when he found him in some space in the area but the PNS keeper had narrowed his angles well as the ball hit the post.
Dom was certainly working hard down on the left and soon had another chance when a counter attack found David with the time and composure to slot the ball under the PNS keeper to bring the Sun back into the fray.
Sun then had a scare when a PNS header from a corner was goalbound but Jamie Speer and keeper Matty Evans both went for the same ball causing Evans to juggle around and as the ball fell Damien Cruickshank was there to clear the ball off the line.
Evans was called into action soon after when a long range shot was hit goalwards but Matty saw it in time and made a brilliant flying save to keep the Sun level.
Chris Blunden ran the ball down the right wing and crossed the ball over finding Dom David whose volley was hit downward as it bounced high over the PNS keeper into the goal to give the Sun the lead.
As always the Sun defence played out of their skins to keep the lead and worked hard for each other.
The second half started with PNS trying to get back into the match but the first shot of the half went wide.
Chrissie Blunden then finally found himself a bit of space and from 30 yards took a long range shot which beat the keeper but rattled the crossbar.
Then came what could have been a huge turning part of the match when Jamie Speer went in for a tackle which the referee took offence at.
It was a tackle that had been made plenty of other times during the match but the official deemed this one to be too high and promptly gave Speer his marching orders.
From then it was backs against the wall for ten man Sun as PNS sensed the opportunity to push forward and make the numerical difference count.
But they failed to make any decent chances and from a corner with only five minutes to go that wasn't cleared properly Chris Blunden latched onto a hard fast cross into the area to hit first time which bulged the back of the net to give the Sun the breathing space they deserved.
The final whistle went to see the Sun go into the second round of the FA Vase for only the second time in their history.
The last time Sun Sports made it to the Second round was in the 2014/15 season when they lost a one sided game against Colchester's Stanway Rovers, Rovers scoring from the one and only shot they had in the whole game.