Northwich grab late winner in top of the table clash

VIDEO: NORTHWICH Victoria sent Warrington Town to only their third league defeat of the season as the title race took another twist.

The win reduces Warrington’s lead at the top of the Evo-Stik League First Division North to 10 points, with Northwich holding three games in hand.

After a goalless first 45 minutes, an early goal at the start of the second half from Warrington started a see-saw five goal second half that the hosts would come out on top of, courtesy of an 87th minute Mike Clarke header.

It was a typically underwhelming first half, as is often the case in these much anticipated battles between top sides.

Warrington entered the game on the back of a 10 game winning streak, the last of which being a comprehensive 7-0 win at Harrogate on Monday, knowing that it was Northwich that perhaps needed the result more than they did.

Northwich had the better of the play for most of the opening half hour, though they were restricted to three wayward shots that cleared both the crossbar and the stand behind the goal.

The visitors were struggling to get hold of the ball at all, and Ben Deegan was struggling to impose himself against Northwich’s back three.

The first notable chance of the match came on the half hour mark when a poor clearance by Scott Metcalfe gave Jimmy Ball enough room to get a shot away, bouncing awkwardly in front of goalkeeper Karl Wills in the driving rain which the big shot-stopper did well to push away.

Town will have been the happier of the two sides at the interval, and two minutes after the restart they were cheering the opening goal of the game.

Metcalfe’s long throw from the left was only partially cleared and it fell to Danny Ventre, who hit it well first time on the half volley and low in to the goalkeeper’s bottom right corner.

The lead was short-lived though, Northwich getting back on terms in slightly strange circumstances as Wills appeared to misjudge Ball’s shot from outside the box and it found the back of the net.

Northwich came back with renewed vigour following the equaliser, and top scorer Richard Bennett twice went close on the hour mark.

First he headed wide from a left wing cross, before striking one well from the edge of the box after neat build up play by the superb Iain Howard which forced Wills to tip it over the bar.

The pressure duly told and after Howard got some space on the left, Bennett got across his man to meet the cross in, though it will probably go down as an own goal off Town left-back Michael Lea.

Howard was finding plenty of space in the pocket between Northwich’s three man midfield and Bennett, and the pair nearly linked up again minutes later to create a third goal when Howard forced a smart stop by Wills low at his near post.

Warrington manager Stuart Mellish ignored calls from the sizeable away support to make changes, with both Deegan and Ciaran Kilheeney struggling to retain possession up front for Town, and it looked to have paid off on 82 minutes.

Kilheeney forced a corner on the right hand side, and after Metcalfe’s first delivery was headed back to him, his second cross found its way in at the back post, kissing off the cross bar as it beat Mason Springthorpe.

At 2-2, the visitors would have retained their 13 point advantage at the top of the table that would put them in the driving seat for the title.

But as time ticked on, and Warrington still neglecting to make a substitution, Vics found a possibly telling goal in the title race as Clarke climbed highest from Brian Summerskill’s corner to earn them the three points.

Northwich Victoria: Springthorpe, Byrne, Duxbury (Summerskill), Krou, Clarke, Regan, Ball, Roddy, Bennett, Howard (Cook), Burnett (Amis). Unused subs: Ali, King.

Warrington Town: Wills, Brown, Lea, Ventre, McCarten, O’Donnell, Holt (Gahgan), Kinsella, Kilheeney, Deegan, Metcalfe. Unused subs: Robinson, Gillespie, Dean, Beattie.