Mid Cheshire Senior Cup

Northwich Vics 6

Winsford United 1

AFTER having the cheek to walk away from their ground with the cup last year, Vics decided that Winsford needed to be put in their place - and how!

Northwich's form has been the sharpest of double-edged swords all season - wielding it mercilessly at opponents one week, stabbing themselves carelessly in the chest the next. But there was never any doubt about this one.

Even when the Blues took the lead after four minutes, Sammy Harris heading in Andy Bridge's well flighted chip, it would have been unwise to start cutting up the green ribbons.

Nathan Peel, who had a lean time during his year at Winsford, seems to have finally located the goalposts and plundered three excellent finishes to claim the match ball.

Neil Illman and Stuart Terry, however, were the players who really found Winsford out and emphasised the gulf in class between the Conference and UniBond League.

On 18 minutes Illman whipped in a near post cross which Peel headed in to level the scores, before pouncing on a weak Leroy Dove back-pass to steer Vics into the lead just before the break.

When a Joey Roberts volley was smothered by Lance Key on 56 minutes, Winsford's last chance to salvage a result had gone.

Two minutes later, Terry, who raided the right flank with clinical speed, played a low cross which Peel fired into the top corner.

Three minutes after this Mark Devlin weaved his way into the box and curled a superb shot into the far corner of John Bagnall's net.

The game then descended into one-sided mediocrity when early hero Harris was sent off for a second bookable offence.

Bagnall would emerge from the game as United's best player, something which tells its own sad story. He produced saves to deny Peel, Illman and Terry to keep the score at 4-1.

But Terry and Peel combined again on 85 minutes to make it five, before Bagnall passed the ball straight to sub Ian Cooke, who rounded the keeper and slotted in.

Afterwards, Winsford manager Mark Came, who lifted the trophy as a player last year, was in more sombre mood.

He said: "The higher level you play at, the less you can afford to make mistakes and we made some terrible errors out there."

Northwich: Key, Bates, Birch, Crookes, Simpson, Devlin (sub Tait 70), Terry, Walters (Webster 45), Illman, Peel, Vicary (Cooke 55)

Winsford: Bagnall, German (sub Carthy 79), Thelwell (Murphy 67), Hibbert, Dove, Wheeler, Roberts, Harris, Whittaker, Bridge (Goldrick 84), Hockenhull

Man of the Match: Stuart Terry

Attendance: 351

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