P-R-O-M-O-T-I-O-N !

Just when it looked as though this season was about to take one final turn, Sale wrested control and kept it on the straight-and-narrow. Very narrow. Too narrow.

We needed a point from our last game of the season, away to a Wrexham side hovering just about the relegation places. Easy, right? Wrong. This is a team who’d recently lost to Alderley Edge, Neston and Denbigh by a single goal each time, playing at home on a bouncy water-based pitch. With injury-hit Sale limping through the season, we knew we needed to be on form to get something from this one.

And so it proved, the home side dominating the early proceedings mainly through their superior experience of the pitch. Sale managed to hang on though, thanks largely to some canny defending from Mark Roberts and some good saves from Anthony McGreal. Unfortunately, living on the edge isn’t a long-term solution, and so it proved when a goal-bound ball hit Gavin Moore’s chest. Penalty flick, and this time Ant wasn’t able to pull off the save. 0-1.

This Sale team, however, has spirit and determination in spades, and we managed to win a few short corners late on in the first half. It was Bradford Abakumov who managed to convert one into a goal, fittingly thanks to a bouncing bomb. 1-1 at the break, and all to play for.

The next goal, unfortunately, went to the home team, Mahinda Kularatne suffering the ignominy of seeing what should have been an easily dealt-with ball bounce over his stick and into goal. 1-2.

Sale rebuilt though, got the hang of the pitch, and finally started finding space as the home side tired. A yellow card for the Wrexham left back, for an injudicious hack as Damian Greig stormed past, made it easier for us, and for once we capitalised. First, Gavin Moore strode down the left wing and delivered a cracking diagonal ball into the D that set up Scott Raftery nicely for the equaliser. 2-2.

Mike Hoyle had replaced a tiring Bradford at centre half, and was pulling the strings to excellent effect. It was one of his passes that eventually allowed Damian Greig to run down the byline and deliver a shot that went in off one of the Wrexham defenders. 2-3, and Sale were finally able to believe.

Sale don’t do it the easy way though, and allowed the home side an equaliser through a fast attack and a deft finish. 3-3, and promotion hopes hung on a thread. Somehow, with Bradford back on the pitch, we managed to run down the clock and kill the game. Just.

The final whistle blew, and the crowd went wild! All four of them, anyway. Div 5S, here we come!

Mahinda Kularatne got MotM for some vital tackles towards the end of the game, but mostly for it being his last game as captain. Writing about myself in the third person is weird, so I’ll stop.

Lastly, a few stats. We finish the season with the following record:

P22 W19 D1 L4 F112 A41 GD+71

That's ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE goals! We’ve certainly played an exciting brand of hockey this season, at both ends of the pitch. This weekend's draw saw our first points dropped since January 11th. Wow.

The 2s haven’t been in Div 5 since the 2002/3 season. I’m proud to sign off as skipper having seen three promotions in four years. Admittedly, two of those were thanks to league restructures, but I’ll take what I can get. All this was built on foundations set up by Ian Ellis and Rob Riley – when Ian took over the armband, waaay back in 2009, Sale 2s had finished rock bottom of Div 7S having won just one game, with a goal difference of -98. Ouch. Our average result during that painful season was a 5-1 defeat. Our average this season was a 5-2 win.

The Sale men’s section remains on the up, with each of the last four seasons seeing at least one team promoted – we’ve got some fine players on our books, and whoever ends up with the captaincy next season will inherit a cracking bunch of lads, on and off the pitch.

It’s been emotional.