IT could scarcely have been a better festive period for Warrington Town had Paul Carden been Santa Claus himself.
Four games, four wins, 12 points, two injury-time winners and two wins over play-off rivals, as the Yellows saw off Buxton, Witton Albion, Basford United and Bamber Bridge.
The Buxton game, which saw a dramatic late turnaround having been largely second best for much of the game, set the tone for the period which has Warrington’s winning run stretched to seven ahead of this Saturday’s mouth-watering trip to Farsley Celtic, who currently sit one place above them in second in the table.
Jack Mackreth’s injury-time winner at Witton, the second successive year the Yellows have done that in the Boxing Day derby, kept the run going before a real thriller away at Basford, as Warrington became only the second team to leave there with three points this term.
All three of those performances were signs of a champion team, fighting from behind, playing til the death and coming out of a battle on top.
New Year’s Day was ultimately a comfortable win over Bamber Bridge, though they were thankful to Charlie Albinson’s first half penalty save – while recent returnee Connor McCarthy got off the mark with a brace of goals.
With Mackreth, Tony Gray and Bohan Dixon on the sidelines against Brig, a front four of Dominic Reid, Dylan Vassallo, Jack Dunn and McCarthy played some exciting, fast, attacking football and proved that this season, the Yellows have a number of plans to break teams down.
Dunn in particular, has been outstanding since getting his chance in the team following his return from injury and a loan spell at Widnes. If his current form continues, he could well find himself in the running for league honours at the end of the year.
A big January awaits for the Yellows, with Farsley away followed by Scarborough away on Saturday week. But such has been their recent form, they can even afford to drop points in either of those games and still be extremely well placed.
In fact, the only real negative of recent weeks has been the upturn in form of South Shields, who are ominously placed in fourth, and a team that no one will want to face in the play-offs.
The Yellows have 19 league games to go – is the league title their destinty? We will wait and see.
