Warrington Town win to extend unbeaten away run

WARRINGTON Town came from behind to beat Rushall Olympic 2-1 on a wet Saturday afternoon in the Midlands.

It was a gutsy display by the Yellows to bounce back from the midweek humbling at home to Stourbridge.

Shaun Beeley’s superb 25-yard strike proved to be the winner 12 minutes from time to maintain Warrington’s unbeaten away record, the only one remaining in the Evo-Stik League.

Warrington handed a debut to new signing Jamie McDonald, a striker signed from City of Liverpool two divisions below earlier in the week.

Still licking their wounds from the 5-1 home hammering against Stourbridge on Tuesday night, the Yellows started positively and enjoyed lots of good possession in midfield without making the transition into the final third.

But gradually the home side started to impose themselves and on 18 minutes Alex Lingard’s goal bound shot was diverted behind by the head of Jack Higgins.

From the resulting corner, Rushall took the lead. Just as they had been exposed on Tuesday night, Warrington once again conceded from a set piece, failing to clear sufficiently and Kristian Scott’s return ball was powered home by AJ Adelekan from 12 yards.

The game continued in the same vein, the Yellows enjoying lots of ball in the middle of the park without doing much with it.

Scott had a tricky shot that skidded off the sodden surface and was well held by McMillan, before the Yellows were handed a lifeline.

McDonald, always keen to run, got in behind and had an age to get a shot away, which he did and it was well saved by Jonathan Brown. McDonald collected the rebound and as he looked to get in to a position to shoot, the ‘keeper’s hand clipped him and after a moment to allow for any advantage, the referee awarded a penalty.

Up stepped Sean Williams, sending Brown the wrong way to level things up at 1-1.

That triggered the best spell for the Yellows and they could have hit the front three minutes later when McDonald got a lovely glancing header to James Barrigan’s left-wing cross that beat Brown and landed just the wrong side of the far post.

Set pieces were still a worry for Paul Carden’s men, Joe Hull got a good connected on to Dominic Dell’s free-kick but headed straight at McMillan.

But it was a set piece of their own that the Yellows should have taken the lead in the dying stages of the first half.

As it was, two superb blocks on the line by Majed Osman denied first McCarten and then McDonald, and the two sides went in at the break level.

Much of the play at the start of the second half came in the Rushall half, McDonald getting in behind and forcing a corner with almost too much time to decide whether to pick out Barrigan at the back post.

The game threatened to boil over on 51 minutes, when three players picked up yellow cards after a bit of handbags, and that prompted a scrappy period of play.

Rushall were surrendering possession far too easily for their liking, and it was a mistake by their centre half that turned the game on the hour mark.

Adelekan sold his team-mate short and then in his desire to atone for his error, brought down Barrigan when through on goal and the referee had no choice but to show him a straight red card.

That was no consolation for the Yellows though, who couldn’t take advantage with the free kick from the edge of the box.

Rushall steadied the ship despite the man disadvantage and it took something special to break their resolve on 78 minutes.

McDonald held the ball up with his back to goal, spread it right for Beeley striding forward from half way, and in space the former Barrow right back unleashed a shot from 25-yards that found the bottom corner.

Rushall threw men forward in the final 10 minutes but failed to trouble McMillan, while the Yellows constantly enjoyed corners at the other end.

The closest they came to a third was when McDonald enabled substitute Aboubacar Sanogo to bear down on goal, he beat a defender and then shot that went through the ‘keeper and was headed off the line by Osman.

Eventually the whistle came and Warrington now look forward to back-to-back home games against Lancaster City (Tuesday) and Whitby Town (Saturday).

The victory took Town back up to third in the table, just three points behind leaders Shaw Lane, both having played 12 games.

Rushall Olympic: Brown, Atkinson, Lingard, Osman, Hull, Adelekan, Waldron, Dell, Landell, Scott, Dunkley. Subs: Gould, Smith, Valido, O’Neill-Martin, Duke.

Warrington Town: McMillan, Beeley, McKeown, Williams, McCarten, Higgins, Hine, Richards, McDonald, Kinsella, Barrigan. Subs: Goulding, Carden, Hughes, Sanogo, Ascroft.