City of Stoke 1-1 Sutton Coldfield Town

A lacklustre Royals never got off the ground in this game until the last ten minutes when they were down to nine players due to two red-cards

City of Stoke were far more determined, gritty and had more desire to compete, win and take this game by the scruff of the neck, which they did on fifty-nine minutes with a corner which McElroy failed to deal with which went in at the far-post

By this time the Royals had to push on and a left-wing cross was fired in by Abbie Hyland but was ruled to be offside

Two hand-ball incidents in the box were also not given to the amazement of both dugouts

It was left to Player-of-the-Match Chloe Finn, to pull the game out of the fire with an eighty-seventh minute run and shot which the COS keeper was unable to hold

The Royals now face an uphill struggle in their bid to gain promotion but it is still doable but not on performances like this

Manager Andy Burman said "It says it all when the nine players that were left played better than the eleven that started"

An injury to returning Charlotte Worth was not as bad as first feared and we hope that she is fit enough to return at the start of pre-season

We thank COS for their kind hospitality after the match and wish them well for the rest of the season