Warrington Town 3 Droylsden 4

WARRINGTON Town's unbeaten start to 2015 was undone on Saturday ex-Yellow Ciaran Kilheeney popped up with an injury-time winner for Droylsden.

Kilheeney beat Town stopper Robbie Johnson in the 94th minute, courtesy of a deflection, for his hat-trick to complete a turnaround after the Yellows led 3-2 at Cantilever Park.

Warrington, beaten 3-1 in the return fixture in November, hit the front inside two minutes.

Winger Scott Metcalfe was released through on goal from the left side but was about to pull the trigger and got brought down, leaving the referee no hesitation in pointing to the spot.

Metcalfe dusted himself off and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way with the resulting penalty to give Town.

One minute later the ball was in the net again, as Metcalfe got away down the left and this time put in a superb cross for Ben Wharton, who was denied by an offside flag.

Droylsden gradually recovered from their disastrous start, and winger Michael Monaghan was causing the hosts problems.

It was from the other side that the equalising goal came though, as Andy Fowler’s curling cross held up at the back post for Ben Deegan nod down and Steve Hall finish instinctively from eight yards out.

There had been chances at both ends before Kilheeney took over.

First, Chris Gahgan weaved his way through and shot right at the goalkeeper, and then Danny Ting curled a free-kick just over the bar for Droylsden.

It was on 38 minutes that Kilheeney scored his first goal, afforded too much time in the box from Monaghan’s pull back, and firing past Johnson, deputising for the suspended Karl Wills in the Town goal.

Droylsden went in to half time with a 2-1 advantage, but Warrington responded well at the break.

Tom Hardwick headed narrowly over from Louis Corrigan’s corner and the introduction of Stephen Tames started to stretch the visitors' defence.

The equaliser came shortly before the hour mark when top scorer Metcalfe claimed his second goal. His chested first touch from Gahgan’s hooked past opened the angle, and he made no mistake firing across Craig Ellison.

The turnaround was complete 10 minutes later when Dean Astbury was introduced from the bench and was on the scoresheet within one minute.

Metcalfe played the ball in to Tames’ feet, and his flick released Astbury who opened up and drilled in to the back of the net.

Tames had a glorious opportunity to put the game to bed on 78 minutes, springing the offside trap to collect Astbury’s through ball, but he slotted his slot just wide of the goal.

As Town sought to close the game out, Droylsden were handed a lifeline when they were awarded a penalty on 84 minutes as Hardwick brought down Deegan. Kilheeney drilled the ball home for 3-3.

And it turned in to the perfect return to his old stomping ground for Kilheeney as he raced away in injury time and managed to get a shot towards goal, deflected beyond Johnson, to grab the three points and put a big dent in Warrington’s play-off hopes.

Warrington: Johnson, Field, Corrigan, Mannix, McCarten, Hardwick, Beattie (Tames), Burke, Wharton (Astbury), Gahgan (Booth), Metcalfe. Unused subs: Robinson, Kinsella.