Witton Albion 4 Hyde United 3: TWO stunning goals and three sendings off in as many minutes gave Christmas punch to Wincham Park's Boxing Day clash.

Darrell Dicken was Witton's hero and all the villains were on Hyde's side.

Between the positive and negative incidents, the game had more goals as Hyde never let the points out of their sight until the closing minutes, whereupon blind rage took over.

Matthew McNeill, a forward with good skills, showed a range of language too which singled him out for the first red card in the 89th minute.

As the game swept into injury time, Paul Jones launched himself into an ugly tackle on Mike Moseley and was the second player dismissed.

In the after-shock, Hyde assistant manager Tony Ellis, the veteran striker who once signed for Vics, volleyed some foul and abusive the way of the officials and was the third sent off.

Jones, by now, had just about made it down the tunnel where he burst into the officials' changing rooms and allegedly caused further mayhem with a pot of tea. You always get an 'Oooh' with Ty-phoo, though I suspect the ref and linesmen had something more akin to the choice of words of McNeill and Ellis when they discovered the damage to their belongings.

All of which gives the New Year's Day return match an edge both teams could do without. Jones will be absent for previous misdemeanours and so will Dicken, for accumulated bookings.

The game was only nine minutes old when Ben Johnson fired a cross-field pass to Dicken, which gave him space to dart forward and unleash a glorious rising shot beyond Tim Mullock.

Three minutes later, Moseley's pass found Dicken in a similar position and in similar inspiration, this time burying a low shot to Mullock's left.

As Witton poured forward, Moseley made a great run from the halfway line, but his left-foot effort veered wide.

It was enough to encourage Hyde who began to play some excellent football. On 20 minutes, Phil Salt's left-wing free kick was misjudged by the Albion keeper who helped the ball into the net.

But Witton restored their two-goal lead on the half-hour when Danny Salt's forward ball was slipped home by Moseley as he turned away from Jones.

Albion were pushed back and Andy Waine poached Hyde's second in 43 minutes.

The score was 4-2 in the 64th minute when Mike Yates whipped in a low cross from the right and Jones put the ball into his own net.

He had no time to sink into his black mood, though, for two minutes later McNeill's flick to the far post from a corner was fired home by Neil Tolson.