Pictures John Hopkins
WARRINGTON Town returned to winning ways with a 2-0 win at Farsley Celtic.
Two well taken goals by Will Hayhurst and Sean Williams curbed a run of six games without a win as the Yellows consolidated second place in the table as the end of the season draws near.
But it was both the result and the performance that will have pleased manager Paul Carden, Warrington controlling the game throughout and looking more like their old selves after their recent wobbles.
Having played on both Tuesday and Thursday night this week, drawing at home to Nantwich and then away at Whitby, Carden shuffled his pack and the likes of Gerard Kinsella brought energy and enthusiasm in to the midfield.
They got off to a positive start and the excellent Will Hayhurst put an early free kick in to the box that saw Michael Bakare’s shot blocked.
Another man starting in midfield, Shaun Beeley, was perhaps a little too enthusiastic in the early stages, earning a yellow card inside three minutes for a tough tackle in the midfield that prompted virtually the entire Farsley team to crowd the referee no doubt looking for something more than the booking the ex-Barrow full-back received.
It would be a niggly games at times, though one that Warrington always seemed to be more comfortable with.
Hayhurst was having a solid game on the left and he warmed Graeme McKibbin’s hands with a shot on 17 minutes after he took on Kinsella’s pass.
That would prove to be a warning, as five minutes later Hayhurst was left in lots of space on the edge of the box and decided to take a low shot that bounced awkwardly and went through the goalkeeper to give the visitors the lead.
It could have been two on 26 minutes when Hayhurst’s corner was cleared back to him, and his second ball in was headed just wide of the post by an unmarked Jack Higgins six yards out.
The Yellows ended the half strongly too, the tireless Jamie McDonald taking a ball on through the middle, weaving in and out and then dragging a shot wide when it had opened up for him.
He too brought a save out of McKibbin on the stroke of half time, this time from the right hand side, and the Yellows went in deservedly 1-0 to the good.
Farsley started the second half brightly but the wind was knocked out of their sails eight minutes in to it when Warrington went 2-0 up.
It was a goal that came from Warrington’s patient build-up play, with Kinsella and Beeley both involved in keeping possession on the right hand side, and as space opened up towards the middle, the ball found its way across to Williams who hit one with the outside of his right foot that nestled in the bottom corner of the net.
As with the first goal, Warrington had a glorious chance to make it a double blower minutes later as Bakare flew down the left hand side, cut in and got the ball across the keeper to Kinsella, who saw his shot cleared off the line.
After that, it was a case of seeing the game out and with both Higgins and Liam Goulding in sterling form at the heart of the Warrington defence they were rarely troubled.
It was injury time before ‘keeper Luke Pilling was called in to meaningful action, holding on to late shots from Lewis Turner and Luke Parkin but it was Warrington’s day.
The Yellows return to action at home to Shaw Lane on Tuesday evening.
Farsley Celtic: McKibbin, Wells, Turner, Atkinson, Ellis (Harris), Clayton, Atkinson (Boyd), Turner, Walker (Murray), Cartman, Parkin. Unused subs: Trennery.
Warrington Town: Pilling, Carden, McKeown, Williams, Higgins, Goulding, Bakare (Leacock-McLeod), Beeley, McDonald (Piggott), Kinsella (Davis), Hayhurst. Unused subs: Jennings, McEveley.
