Vauxhall Motors 3 v 1 Maine Road
Danny Cross may not be the most prolific goalscorer at Vauxhall, but he does seem to like playing against Maine Road, as the Motormen came from behind at the break to overwhelm the Manchester visitors, as they recorded their seventh league double of this amazing campaign.
After a quiet start, Motors suddenly started creating chances around the quarter-hour mark, but failed to convert a number of efforts, mainly down to Road keeper Conrad Betton who kept the hosts out with a series of saves. The visitors played a decent game throughout and stunned the home side on 40 minutes with a superb strike from Matt Wilson after he was put through in the inside left channel by an inch-perfect pass from Ryan Smith for a glorious goal and a half time lead.
Harsh words from Motors manager Mick McGraa had an instant impact at the start of the second half, as midfielders Cross, Glenn Rule and Haydn Cooper all began to shine. Within seconds of the restart, a fabulous Cross centre from the right was met by a diving header by Ryan Cox, only for Betton to pull off a miraculous save from close range. But from the resulting corner, a partially clearance fell for Cross who drilled home from just outside the area for the equaliser, his third goal of the season against Maine Road.
At the other end, Ben Mooney fired over the bar when well placed before Motors turned the screw. The game was an hour old when Cross passed across the area for top scorer Karl Noon, who turned and fired into the same bottom corner as Cross had done earlier, for his 21st goal of the campaign.
And eight minutes later, Motors went 3-1 up when Cox found space in the area and fired home from ten yards despite the off-balance Betton getting a hand to the shot for his 16th goal of the season.
Motors substitute Michael Burkey looked lively upon his introduction and went very close to adding to the score minutes after leaving the bench, while the home side also had two other “goals” ruled out for offside.
The three points takes Motors within two points of automatic promotion to the NWCL Premier Division with eight matches still to play, as they made it 79 points from a possible 90.
Vauxhall: Crump, Mason, Heath, Gardner, Mitchell, Rule , Cross, Cooper (Carlin 76), Cox (Burkey 71) , Noon, Holmes (Burkey 66). Subs not used: Drummond.
