A penalty save and two headers clinch victory for Peterborough Sports in their seasonal opener

It was a big day for the city club with the excitement of not only a new season at Peterborough Sports, but also the opening of our new clubhouse after a frantic week of work, inspections and graft.

But on the field it was back to business and manager Jimmy Dean mamed a solid starting XI with Gash back from injury and another new addition to the squad Ryan Fryatt on the substitutes’ bench.

It was a fairly low key start to the game with neither side seemingly wanting to make a mistake, but on 19 minutes Brad McGowan was what seemed harshly penalised for his challenge and a penalty was awarded.

Sam Whittall stepped up for Rushall but Sports’ keeper Lewis Elsom was up the job and he smothered the shot and gathered the ball with a huge sigh of relief from the watching Turbines.

The tempo of the second half was fairly similar to the first although Sports seemed to be pressing slightly higher. It was the introduction of Jonny Herd on 57 minutes that was the catalyst for change. Two minutes later he slung in a long throw in and it found the head of skipper Jones under challenge who flicked it past the keeper for the opener.

Sports were now in the groove and were looking increasingly dangerous on the attack while able to deal with Rushall attacks. The game changed again on 71 minutes when, totally unnecessarily, Rushall’s Tyler Lyttle threw the ball at close range at Jordan Nicholson’s head, giving the referee no choice but to issue a red card.

A minute later Sports had their second and it was a superb cross from Dion Sembie-Ferris that found the dependable head of Gash to guide his header into the net from eight yards.

The remainder of the match mainly played out in the Rushall half of the pitch and Sports calmly saw out the game.