WARRINGTON Rylands kept their good form going with a 2-1 win at Stalybridge Celtic on Saturday afternoon
On-loan Salford City man Kelly N’Mai proved to be the hero, scoring twice inside the last 15 minutes as Blues secured their third win in four matches.
Jody Banim’s men had trailed to Raul Correia’s opener on the hour mark for the hosts, but the sending-off of Kyle Harrison then forced the Celts onto the back foot.
The result - their first away win in the league since the end of September - moves Rylands up to eighth in the Northern Premier League Premier Division table.
"The sending-off helps us and it’s given us a little bit more momentum but on the balance of play, I don’t think anyone can deny that we’ve deserved to win the match," Banim said.
"It was a really competitive game, I felt. It’s fair to say we had a lot of the ball and created a lot of openings but we were wasteful.
"You always leave yourself susceptible at 0-0 to moments in the game and that’s what’s happened to put them 1-0 up.
"They had a spell in the second half, but we’ve dug in and done enough to win the match.
"The attitude again was superb when we went 1-0 down to stay in the game."
After a goalless first half, an enthralling game exploded into life when the Rylands rearguard misjudged the flight of a long ball punted downfield by Louis Danquah, allowing the ball to fall to Correia who drove the ball high into the net from just inside the penalty area.
The home side were reduced to ten men in the 74th minute when Harrison was red-carded after felling Harry Pratt on the edge of the area.
Sean Cooke struck the cross bar with the free kick, which was not the first time Rylands had struck the Celtic bar.
Callum Dolan headed against it in the first half while Celtic had twice rattled Rylands’ woodwork – Moses Yoak striking the near post in the first half with an inswinging corner and Correia striking the underside of the bar in the opening moments of the second half.
N’Mai – one of three substitutes introduced after conceding – levelled the scores in the 78th minute with a fine individual goal.
Cutting in from the left, he drifted past several defenders to fire a low drive into the bottom corner from 25 yards.
N’Mai struck again in the 85th minute, dancing through a packed penalty area the Salford loanee drilled a low shot past Celtic goalkeeper Greg Hall.
Rylands: Torrance, Duxbury, Mustoe (Mantack), Hockenhull, Egerton, McCourt, Leitch-Smith (Pratt), Furman, Dolan, Cooke (N’Mai) Neild. Subs not used: Hunt, Cookson
Additional reporting by Garry Clarke
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