WARRINGTON Town achieved their first league double of the season as they defeated near neighbours Trafford 3-1 at Cantilever Park on Saturday.
The visitors were reduced to 10 men when their keeper saw red for handling outside the box on 17 minutes and Town soon took advantage with a wonder strike from new signing Chris Thompson who sent a dipping shot in from the edge of the box, giving the stand in keeper no chance.
Striker Alan Collins tapped in a second for Town before half-time and when Thompson added a third early in the second half a rout looked on the cards.
But to their credit Trafford never gave up while Warrington sat back a little allowing the visitors a consolation goal.
Town handed recent signing Adam Jukes a first league start, in place of the suspended Tom Hardwick.
Both sides began the game well, with visitors having the best early chance, but seeing Paul Pritchard produce a fine save to deny them. Pritchard was once again called into action to deny centre back’s Adam Turner’s looping header. The turning point of the game came in the 17th minute, when the visitors keeper, Tom Read was dismissed for handling the ball outisde his penalty area, with winger Paul Ashton replacing him in goal. Town took complete control of the game, pushing forward looking to make their one man advantage. They came close, but no one could meet Louis Corrigan’s teasing free kick, or Mike Duffy’slow cross soon after. Town made their advantage pay, in the 33rd minute, when Ashton saved Chris Gahgan’s initial effort, before the ball fell to Thompson, who curled in a delicious effort off the underside of the crossbar. Just seven minutes later, Town doubled their advantage, Sam Finley picking the ball up outside the penalty area, beating two defenders before pulling the ball back from the byline into the path of the on rushing Alan Collins, who tapped the ball home under pressure from two defenders. Just before half time, Town were denied what looked like a stonewall penalty, when Duffy was felled in the box, only for the referee to show a yellow card to Duffy for diving
The visitors came out and took the game to Town with renewed vigour looking to get back into the game, Town skipper Mike Tomlinson making a crucial block to deny striker Andy Lundy a simple tap in early on, and the visitors went on to enjoy their best spell of pressure of the game, but could not find a way to beat Pritchard, due to some excellent defending and some poor last passes. Town finally sewed the game up in the 63rd minute as Thompson got on the end of a fine team move and finished acrobatically, seeing his shot go in off the post, past a statuesque Ashton. Just three minutes later, the visitors finally found a way past Pritchard, when midfielder Danny White was given time and space to head home, wrong footing Pritchard in the process. Town almost found a fourth goal with just over a quarter of an hour left to play, Ashton’s slip allowed Collins tgo nip in, but Ashton recovered significantly enough to make the save. The visitors continued to press forward and went close to scoring shortly before the end when substitute Jamie Baguley’s curling long range free kick, stung the palms of Pritchard and bounced away to safety.
Pictures show (from the top) Chris Thompson curling in his first goal from outside the box, celebrating his second goal and with fellow goal scorer Alan Collins.
For more pictures from the game CLICK HERE
Town: Pritchard, Duffy (Ness, 60), Corrigan, Jukes, Tomlinson, Wade (R Hardwick, 52), Hickey, Finley, Collins, Thompson, Gahgan, subs not used: Salmon, Millington
1 Comment
Great game and credit to Trafford, they tried to the end. Good to see Town more settled.