IF this was an acid test of whether they should be taken seriously, then Witton Albion provided a conclusive answer.

Those who are harder to please could, not unreasonably it has to be said, point out that Carl Macauley’s men benefitted from a kind fixture list during a flawless August that yielded five successive wins.

Beating Buxton, unbeaten leaders in the Northern Premier League’s top flight this season, feels significant.

If history is a guide, then perhaps we should have seen it coming.

After all, Witton have seen off the Bucks now in seven FA Cup meetings.

However in none of the previous six were they ranked lower than their opponents.

Macauley had said beforehand his players would not be scared by that, and he wasn’t bluffing.

They relied too on a stroke of fortune.

The game’s decisive moment arrived in the moments before half time when Tom Owens, with the help of a defender’s deflection, scored the home team’s second goal.

He was alert, arriving first to a loose ball after Buxton failed to clear Brad Bauress’ cross from the left.

It doubled Albion’s lead, and the visitors never recovered.

They will curse themselves, for the opener was avoidable too.

When Tolani Omotola spun sharply away from Danny Burns, he looked likely to run the ball out of play.

However the defender, panicked, sent him sprawling to the turf.

Bauress swept in the resulting penalty.

Before that moment, the Bucks had created the clearest chance.

Denied a goal by a linesman’s raised flag in the early stages, they were thwarted again when Niall Doran’s low drive was blocked instinctively by goalkeeper Jon Ritchie with a well-placed boot.

The stand-in custodian, signed the previous evening as cover for absent regular Danny Roberts, made another important intervention in the minutes after Bauress’ penalty.

Jamie Green’s swerving free kick was on target, but the former Vauxhall Motors custodian stretched fully to his left to parry it clear.

Witton did not settle for a two-goal advantage when the contest resumed after half time.

Rob Hopley steered a shot against an upright after Omotola sent him clear on 53 minutes.

Given a clearer sight of goal shortly afterwards, after reaching Ritchie’s long punt forward before Buxton number one Jan Budtz, he nudged the loose ball into an empty net.

Bauress arced an attempt narrowly over when Albion attacked again.

Martin McIntosh, the Bucks’ boss, sent on attacking duo Jamie Jackson and Nicky Walker in an attempt to spark a recovery.

But it made no difference.

His side ought to have scored with nine minutes left, only for Ricky Ravenhill to glance wide after timing a run from midfield to meet Jackson’s cross.

Owens threw himself in the way of Walker’s shot, this time from a Bradley Grayson assist, and Ritchie adjusted to get in the way of Grayson’s shot after it clipped a back-marker.

Had it sneaked in, it would only have been a blemish given the emphatic scoreline.

Witton | 4-1-3-2 | Ritchie (GK), Gardner, Brown, Wilson, Devine, Haywood (Eves 90), Owens, Noon (Benjamin 90), Bauress, Hopley, Omotola, Subs not used Garner (GK), Arnold, Williams, Adigun, Hickman Goals Bauress 32 (penalty), Owens 45 (+2), Hopley 64 Booked Haywood (ungentlemanly conduct), Brown (foul)

Buxton | 4-5-1 | Budtz (GK), Joel Bembo-Leta, Burns, Young, Green, Taylor (Walker 50), Abbott (Jackson 46), Ravenhill, Everington, Doran, Grayson Subs not used Fabrice Bembo-Leta, Milner, Bozkurt, Barlow, Potter Booked Taylor, Green, Ravenhill (all fouls), Burns (handball)

Referee Scott Jackson

Attendance 324