UNIBOND DIVISION ONE (From Warrington Guardian)

UNIBOND DIVISION ONE

Witton Albion 4

Stocksbridge 1

IT took 40 minutes for Witton's strikers to warm the Stocksbridge 'keepers hands with a shot on target - but once they did there was no looking back for Brown and Bishop's free-scoring side writes Scott McLeod.

Having trailed for 36 minutes of the opening half it was Ricki Carter who finally levelled the scores a minute into first-half injury time.

It was, undeniably, a crucial goal at a crucial period of the game and gave Albion the lift they needed. Indeed, within three minutes of the second half getting underway they took the lead and never looked back.

But the caretaking duo of Rob Brown and Eddie Bishop must have been concerned by the quality of the display earlier in the game.

Witton started brightly enough, Charlie Boyd producing two passes of exemplary vision to release Marc Hawkes in the opening seven minutes. But on both occasions the striker, who gave little indication as to why he was picked ahead of newcomer Neil Lloyd, failed to find the target with efforts.

It was to prove costly for Witton, who fell behind on 10 minutes. A driven cross from the left hand by-line by Jamie Allen struck Wayne Johnson on the side of the head and ricocheted beyond the wrong-footed Phil McGing and into the net.

A fortuitous strike, it knocked the stuffing out of Witton. And for long spells of the first half it looked like the solid Stocksbridge outfit were going to notch up yet another away victory. A series of long delays for injuries didn't help Albion.

The turnaround came on 40 minutes when a Boyd corner deep to the back post found Nigel Gleghorn who centred for Johnson to force Andy Carney into a save.

A minute later and David Anane, anonymous until then, fired inches wide.

Then, with half-time looming, Boyd and Anane combined on the edge of a crowded penalty area to slip a neat ball through for Carter who slid in from eight yards to tuck the ball into the corner of the net.

The second came on 48 minutes. A Gleghorn pass from the left was missed by a Steels player, allowing it to roll into the path of Andy Lovelock. He took it in his stride and sprinted down the inside right, evading one tackle, before blasting across the face of Carney and into the far corner of the net via a post from 12 yards.

The third on 65 minutes saw Boyd skip inside from the left and play a great reverse pass into the area for Anane to run onto and slip under the advancing keeper. A minute later and a clearing header from a Lovelock cross by sub Steve Taylor prevented Gleghorn claiming a straight-forward fourth.

The honour fell instead to Lovelock. Neil Lloyd, on for Hawkes, was fouled just inside the Steels half wide on the left. With the visitors still retreating Gleghorn fired a quick free-kick diagonally across field into the path of Lovelock making another good run. He hit the ball first time beyond the 'keeper, who was stranded on the edge of the area, and into the goal from 20 yards.

For Stocksbridge, it was only their third away league defeat this season, for Albion it was a valuable lesson in how not to start a game.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.