Middlewich Town 4 Pilkington 2

Green Mid Cheshire One

Saturday, October 23

MIDDLEWICH started this contest against the bottom-placed club anxious to break the deadlock as early as possible, but a stubborn Pilkington side denied them.

Les Miranda and Jason Jones were paired together for the first time and caused all kinds of problems for the visitors' defence, but were unable to find the end product of an opening goal.

That honour fell to Paul Bennett in the 39th minute, hitting a low drive into the bottom corner past the static goalkeeper.

Town were then caught by a sucker punch. Bad marking at a free-kick allowed Denney to equalise for Pilks and make it 1-1 at the interval.

The second half was delayed because of a downpour, and once Town's substitutes had cleared the rainwater from the goalmouth, Middlewich emerged with more confidence in their play.

They were passing the ball much more accurately and should have taken the lead when Eddie Whitehurst crossed for Miranda who was denied by a fine save.

On 70 minutes, Town were stunned when Pilkington again caught them pushing forward and Denney scored his second to put them 2-1 up.

This forced Dave Twite to make two substitutions, immediately bringing on Lee Steen and Steve Moss for Tim Pole and Whitehurst. With his first contribution, Moss found Ben Barnard on the left and he fired an unstoppable shot to put Town on level terms.

Twite made his final substitution, bringing on Chris Melia for the injured Miranda and again this had immediate effect, as Melia danced past two defenders to find Bennett, who scored Town's third from all of 40 yards.

Middleiwch were now playing the game in the oppostion's half and should have increased their lead at least by another three goals.

However, Jaspon Jones scored number four after a defence-splitting ball by Steen left him with just the keeper to beat and he duly responded by sliding the ball past him.

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