Runcorn FC Halton 2 Leek Town 1

President's Cup

LIAM Watson finally brought an end to the Linnets' disastrous cup run with a goal in the dying minutes of their President's Cup tie last week.

The inspirational player-manager rocked the Welsh side with a strike six minutes from time to fire his side into the quarter-finals and help avoid their fourth cup exit in two weeks.

Only 101 turned out for the match at the Halton Stadium on a bitterly cold Tuesday night and most must surely have feared the worst as soon as the travelling Unibond first division side took the lead with just three minutes gone.

Leek's Jon Hassall took advantage of some hesitancy in the Runcorn defence to latch onto a loose ball and fired his shot past keeper Tony McMillan.

Charge

But Liam's lads didn't drop their heads and immediately looked to get themselves back into the game, with Dave Gamble leading the charge with a couple of long-range efforts that flew just wide of the posts.

The Linnets, still without injured strikers Wes Kinney and Matthew McNeil, suffered another blow early on when lively Kevin Leadbetter limped off with a recurrence of his knee injury.

Persistence

Watson replaced him up front alongside makeshift forward Chris Lightfoot and their persistence paid off when Gamble finally grabbed the equaliser after 18 minutes.

Picking up the ball at the edge of the 18-yard box, the hard-working midfielder unleashed an unstoppable shot past Phil Morgan in the Leek goal.

But with the side's level, Runcorn's injury nightmare continued when influential centre, Chris Price, had to be substituted with a claf injury.

In the second half, both teams had their chances, with Morgan forced to make a fingertip save to keep Leek in the game and deny Watson from a delicate lobbed shot.

And it was the home side who looked the more determined to seal victory and, with extra time and penalties looming, the freezing crowd were more than grateful when Watson sent a dipping shot over the stranded Morgan to win the game for the Linnets.

Runcorn FC Halton: McMillan, Carragher, McGinn, Ellis, Tomlinson, Dacey, Price (Lunt), Morley, Lightfoot, Gamble, Leadbetter (Watson).