Winsford Utd 1, Maine Road 4: TWO goals in the closing minutes gave Winsford an embarrassing scoreline on Saturday.
Mark Mitchell is a player the Blues have cast an envious eye over more than once in the past couple of seasons, and he showed why with a hat-trick that had 'class' written all over it.
The warning signals were sent out in the first few minutes when Barry Crellin was forced to dive at his feet and, one minute later, when he had the ball in the net but it was ruled offside.
The best the Blues could offer in the first half hour was a shot from the edge of the box by Ian Wilkinson, but it lacked power and didn't trouble Andy Robertson in the Maine Road goal. On 26 minutes, the visitors went ahead. With the Blues' defence standing motionless, Mitchell scored from a narrow angle.
The second half brought no relief for the Blues and Mitchell added a second on 59 minutes when he lashed the ball home from the edge of the box.
Roy Sweeney and Paul Sweeney were brought on and the Blues began to look a better side. On 74 minutes, Ian Givin was adjudged to have been fouled in the area and Roy Sweeney stepped up to score with a low shot inside the left-hand post. Winsford then had their best period of the game and they were desperately unlucky when Neil Holden's shot crashed against the crossbar.
With the Blues pushing for an equal-iser, the visitors added two more goals, the first by Jerome Wright and then Mitchell completed his hat-trick.
UNITED: Crellin, Wilkinson, Frost (R Sweeney 73), Chambers, Whitehurst, Hutchinson (P Sweeney 70), Wellstead, Quinn, Holden, Givin, Heywood (Sproats 59). Att: 72 Star Man: Dave Chambers did not shun hard work. Next Best: Neil Holden.
Team Rating: 2 Match Rating: 3
