THERE was only one winner among our region’s football teams this afternoon – and it was not an entirely surprising one.
Barnton continued their supreme form with another victory on the road on Saturday, with the Villagers winning 2-0 at Foley Meir in the North West Counties League First Division South.
A goal in each half did the trick for Lewis Wood’s side, with Toby Humphries giving them the lead on the half-hour mark before Tom Stanton rounded off the scoring just after half time.
The win stretches Barnton’s unbeaten run to nine matches in all competitions, with eight of those being wins, since exiting the FA Vase at the hands of Parkgate on September 11.
And given they lost that game on penalties, Wood’s men have now not lost a game within 90 minutes since August 8.
"I don’t think they’ve have argued if it had been six or seven today," Wood said.
"We just lacked that little bit of composure in the final third but in terms of the football we played, it’s probably the best we’ve played all season.
"The good thing is we’re only going to get better – that’s the scary thing.
"We’ll get our heads down and keep going, but it’s a joy to watch us at the minute."
Barnton now sit seventh in the table, two points and two places outside the play-off spots.
Meanwhile, both Witton Albion and 1874 Northwich suffered defeats in the Northern Premier League West Division.
Witton were in a position to win their trip to Chasetown with Freddy Garbutt having given them a half-time lead, but the game changed in a final quarter that coach Chris Appleton described as "a complete capitulation."
The hosts came home with a wet sail with Dylan Thomas, Kevin Monteiro and Matt Hearsey scoring to seal a 3-1 victory.
"The first half was brilliant – arguably, we should have been another goal up and even early in the second half, we hit them on the break and had another chance," Appleton said.
"The second half – I’ll be blunt and honest – was a complete capitulation. They ran all over us, they had runners beyond us and they punished us for it.
"We started going long without any purpose and to be honest, we got what we deserved.
"The most important thing is we learn from it because that’s the second week in a row that we’ve been beaten 3-1.
"We’ll go back to the drawing board, do some analysis and work hard through the week.
"We’ve got to react because we can’t accept those standards."
Ben Harrison’s side are now ninth, five points outside the play-offs, while 1874 remain marooned inside the relegation places having seen a point cruelly snatched from their grasp against Wythenshawe at Townfield Lane.
Having trailed through Henry Carne’s opener, Greens levelled through Sam Mann as the game entered its final quarter, but Darius Palma’s winner with nine minutes remaining condemned them to a 2-1 defeat.
In the FA Vase, Winsford United’s campaign ended in penalty shoot-out heartbreak.
Blues rescued themselves from a normal-time defeat at Holker Old Boys with a last-minute leveller from David Ndidy, who cancelled out Luke Davey’s second-half opener to ensure the tie finished 1-1 after 90 minutes.
Winsford then missed two of their first three penalties in the shoot-out, with Jordan Johnson seeing his effort saved while Kaylan Wilkinson struck the crossbar.
Despite Ryan Brown saving a penalty later in the shoot-out, it meant Winsford were always trailing and then ended up losing 4-3.
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