WITTON Albion will head to Bamber Bridge this Saturday on the back of three successive home losses in the space of a week.

Tuesday night’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of Lancaster City followed Saturday’s first home league loss of the campaign against Stalybridge Celtic, 1-0, which came fast on the heels of an FA Cup exit at the hands of lower level Belper Town by the same scoreline.

It was the first time since facing Buxton in February that Carl Macauley’s side conceded three goals at home, and uncharacteristic after having a run of five clean sheets during September.

Falling two goals behind, courtesy of Robert Wilson and Charlie Bailey, in the final five minutes of a first half in which they were arguably the better side must have hurt Witton on a night they were without Will Jones (work commitments), Billy Smart (hamstring) and James Foley (ankle).

A bright start had brought opportunities for Witton, with an Adam Anson header from a corner and a Michael ‘MJ’ Monaghan curling shot demanding decent saves out of visiting keeper Sam Ashton.

With Macauley’s half-time words still ringing in their ears, Witton halved the deficit three minutes after the restart when Liam Goulding found the top corner from 20 yards – an effort every bit as good as when he scored Witton’s last goal four games previous against Gainsborough Trinity.

But the comeback hopes lasted all of four minutes.

Goalkeeper Chris Renshaw made a fine save but in doing so could only parry the ball into the path of Rowan Roache as the two-goal lead was restored.

Witton created little of note in front of goal after that, even despite the Dolly Blues being reduced to 10 men in the 75th minute following Niall Cowperthwaite being shown a second yellow card.

Don’t be surprised to see changes at Bamber Bridge on Saturday, 3pm, and then Witton visit Stafford on Tuesday, 7.45pm.