WITTON Albion produced one of their best performances so far under Jon Macken in defeating Stalybridge Celtic 3-0 on Saturday.

The Greater Manchester outfit arrived at the U Lock It Stadium two places above Witton, who have now leaped them and gone into the play-off places.

An own goal plus second-half strikes from James Lawrie and Connor Hughes capped a strong display across the board, backing up the 3-1 home win against Kidsgrove Athletic the week before.

A clean sheet was kept by 33-year-old Danny Roberts, two days after rejoining the club from Nantwich Town.

He was part of the Albion squad who won the Northern Premier League South Division play-offs in 2016/17.

“We’ve been working hard on the training pitch and trying to do things and trying to get the performance levels to where we believe the lads are capable of,” said Macken, who has also added experienced defender Scott Lycett, 36, to the squad for his third spell with the club after leaving Kidsgrove.

“Saturday was up there with one of our best performances.

“We can’t rest on that though, we’ve got to keep pushing because we’ve got a little bit of momentum now, a little bit of belief, a little bit of structure and organisation and the workrate from the lads was outstanding but we need that every week.”

Assistant manager Steve Atkinson added: “The gaffer got it right tactically with the selection. I thought to a man we were outstanding.

“Our workrate intensity and our shape in possession and out of possession was bang on, and that’s what got us the three points and the three goals.

“Delighted for the lads, delighted for the club and delighted for the fans who watched us.

“We’re happy for the lads because we see how hard they work. Sometimes you go on the pitch and it doesn’t connect, or you don’t get the rhythm.

“Bu this gives us momentum and momentum is key in football. We’ve spoken about it over the past 20-odd games about how good we can be.

“We have to match that Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday Saturday, to put us in the position where we want to finish.

“We’re not worried about anybody else. It’s about us focusing on our games.

“We’re a game or two ahead of some others but I’d rather have the points on the board and try to finish as high as we can and see where it takes us.”

Macken concluded: “It was one of those performances that you look at as a team performance and everything was good.

“The shape, we got it good for the way Stalybridge try and play but I think the energy levels were up there.

“And like I say we’ve got to keep going. When we put in team performances like that I think we’re a match for anybody in the division, performances that warrant winning games.”

Witton are without a match until they travel to another play-offs chasing side, Widnes, on Saturday, February 17.