Yellows show promotion credentials with fine away win

WARRINGTON Town showed they are serious contenders for promotion this season with an impressive 3-0 win at Blyth Spartans.

Gerard Kinsella laid an opener on a plate for new signing Tom Peers’ second goal in as many games, before Scott Metcalfe slid home a second.

After the break, captain Ciaran Kilheeney kept his composure to beat two men and calmly finish as Warrington took the three points on the long journey back home.

It meant back-to-back wins for the Yellows, who will rue their slip up of a week ago where had they held on to the 2-0 advantage against Nantwich, they would now be second in the league.

As it is, they sit fifth in the Evo-Stik Premier League having played 13 games in the highest division the club has ever been in.

The visitors looked keen from the start, as Blyth probed in the early exchanges through top scorer Robbie Dale.

Warrington will have been encouraged by their comfort in that opening 10 minutes, and they proceeded to make waves up the other end.

Kilheeney slid a perfectly weighted ball inside the full-back for Metcalfe, who cut in on to his right foot and forced the ‘keeper to push the ball wide from the corner.

Then on 12 minutes, the deadlock was broken. The excellent Kinsella taking a loose ball in to the box and then pulling it back from the byline for Peers to nod home from barely yards out.

That put Warrington in the ascendancy, and after Kinsella was brought down 25-yards out from goal, James McCarten’s free-kick was pushed wide.

From the resulting corner, a cross was put back in to the box and nodded back by Andy Nicholas for Kilheeney to bundle home, only for a mysterious flag from the assistant referee to rule it out.

But the Yellows had little time to complain about that decision, as within a minute they found that second goal.

Kinsella carrying the ball in to the box and after he was dispossessed, the ball fell kindly for Metcalfe to slot home left-footed for 2-0.

Both Metcalfe and Scott Harries on the opposite flank were asking questions of the Blyth defence, while Kinsella and Simon Lenighan were impressive in the middle of the park.

It was from a Metcalfe break that another half-chance was created, his cut back evading Kinsella and Lenighan and finding right-back Peter Wylie, who drilled well wide.

Peers, who only signed from Telford shortly before Saturday’s win over Corby, warmed the ‘keeper’s hands with a shot on the turn on the stroke of half time.

But the Yellows were fired a warning before the interval Andrew Cartwright’s effort coming back off the crossbar, with no one quite sure whether it was intended to be a cross or a shot.

That was perhaps a timely reminder of Blyth’s danger, though the second half continued in similar vain as Warrington held their shape impressively.

The closest Blyth came in the opening 10 minutes after the break was Matty Pattinson’s shot which curled over the bar.

It was left to Kilheeney to make the points safe, taking the ball on from Peers on 64 minutes and finding his way past two defenders and putting the ball home calmly.

That proved to be the icing on the cake, and though Blyth rallied for a spell towards the end, hitting the crossbar twice through Nathan Buddle and Dale, the Yellows held on for a comfortable three points.

Blyth Spartans: McHugh, Cartwright, Liddle, Turnbull (Nicholson), Buddle, Hutchinson, Rivers, Pattinson (Wade), Armstrong, Reid (Richardson), Dale. Unused subs: Gaines, Bell.

Warrington Town: Wills, Wylie, Nicholas (Knight), Lenighan, McCarten, Shaw, Harries, Kinsella, Kilheeney, Peers (Gillespie), Metcalfe. Unused subs: O’Donnell, Ventre, Grogan.