WITTON Albion’s run in the FA Cup for this season is over.
And despite the one-sided look to the result for their trip to Macclesfield, manager Ben Harrison believes his side can be proud of their efforts against the higher-ranked Silkmen.
Albion were beaten 6-1 at the Leasing.com Stadium in the third qualifying round as the Northern Premier League Premier Division leaders flexed their muscles.
Witton trailed 2-0 at the break thanks to goals from John Rooney and Justin Johnson, but Reece Daly’s strike halved the deficit and kept them in the tie.
However, Edy Maieco netted the first of his two goals five minutes later to re-establish control for the hosts, who then scored three times in six minutes late on as Danny Elliot scored twice either side of Maieco’s second effort.
“They had quality all over the pitch. They beat South Shields from the league above 5-0 in the last round so we knew what we were facing,” said Harrison, whose side are now not in action until hosting Hednesford Town a week on Tuesday.
“We came out absolutely fantastically in the second half, got the goal which was a great finish from Reece, and we were on top for 20 minutes.
“The third goal is criminal – if he beats a man or puts one in from 25 yards, you can accept it but it’s such a poor goal defensively.
“Their quality showed in the end, and their fitness with the lads they could bring on.
“We got beat 6-1 so we’ve got to be realistic and I don’t like losing football games, but it’s not the end of the world.
“We came here to have a go – we weren’t coming here to sit back and get beat 2-0.
“It was a great experience for the lads – we’ve got a young side and we’re a young management team, so we’ll learn a lot from that.”
Meanwhile, 1874 Northwich remain unbeaten in the Midland Football League Premier Division but were stopped from winning in the league for the first time this season.
Given they were reduced to nine men before half time, however, Chris Herbert’s side will no doubt be happy to take a 1-1 draw from their trip to Wolverhampton Casuals.
Already trailing to Kamren Smith’s goal, 1874 had a nightmare five minutes just before half time when they saw both Joel Jones and Chris McCann sent off.
The home side then had Josh Christie dismissed in injury time to bring an eventful first half to a close, but the nine-man visitors managed to rescue a point through Scott McGowan’s leveller just shy of the hour mark.
“We knew we had character, but I think this game shows how much we’ve got,” Herbert said.
“To go down to nine men and perform like they did – the running stats must be off the charts today.
“How we didn’t win I’ll never know, but you get those games. It could have gone the other way for us in the first half because we were awful.
“From me, you’ve got to take it on the chin when you don’t perform to your usual levels, but the lads were different class in the second half.
“It shows what our changing room is about at the minute.”
Greens are back at home in midweek as they welcome Whitchurch Alport to Townfield on Tuesday evening.
Elsewhere in the MFL Premier Division, Northwich Victoria were held to a 2-2 draw at home to Tividale at Barton Stadium.
All four goals came in the first half, with Jack Coop giving Vics an early lead before the visitors turned the game on its head to lead 2-1.
Callum Parker levelled for the hosts before the break, but that turned out to be the last of the scoring.
“It’s very frustrating,” Vics boss Matt Barnes said.
“We gave them two goals – I can’t actually remember the last time we conceded a goal that we didn’t play a part in ourselves.
“However, we’ve not lost the game, we’ll pick ourselves up and go again at Wolverhampton on Tuesday.
“There were some good individual performances and at times, we looked assured.
“We had most of the game and comfortably had most of the possession, but we didn’t have that cutting edge in the final third.”
As Barnes says, Vics are back in action on Tuesday night as they visit Wolverhampton Casuals.
In the North West Counties League, Winsford United’s excellent form continued as they extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to six matches.
Danny Kerr’s goal just after half time was enough to earn a 1-0 win at Shawbury United for Blues, who are third in the First Division South table and turn their attention to the Macron Cup on Tuesday as they host Sandbach United.
Meanwhile, the 111 people that chose to take in Barnton’s clash with Runcorn Town at Townfield certainly got their money’s worth.
Nine goals were scored in a hectic clash, with the Villagers coming out on top thanks to Joe Levey’s last-minute winner.
The hosts had raced into the lead as Ryan Gibson and Lee Turkington put them 2-0 up inside 10 minutes, but that advantage had been wiped out and turned into a 4-2 deficit within 25 minutes as Joshua Osifo scored twice either side of efforts from Sam Flower and Liam Kennington.
However, Matthew Ball struck just before half time to give Barnton a foothold, with Joe Haley levelling midway through the second half before Levey’s dramatic winner secured a memorable 5-4 win.
The two sides will do it all again on Wednesday evening as Runcorn are back at Townfield in the Macron Cup.
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