Stockport Town 2 v 3 Vauxhall Motors
Vauxhalls secured another hard-fought victory at much-improved Stockport Town on Saturday, their 11th away league success from a dozen such fixtures. But again they had to do it the hard way, coming back from being behind twice in the game, before being able to celebrate another three points, keeping them four ahead of the chasing pack.
The lively hosts wasted little time in showing off their newly-found confidence after securing ten points from their last four league outings and took the lead after just 7 minutes. Playing a short corner on their left, Aaron Dwyer curled the ball into the net off the far post to give them a perfect start.
The Motormen grew slowly into the game and were a touch fortunate with their equaliser on 19 minutes, when Ben Holmes’ corner was turned against the bar by home keeper Josh Ollerenshaw only for the rebound to effectively hit Michael Burkey on the shoulder close in and finish up inside the net.
Both sides had chances to score before the break but both keepers made decent saves to thwart Dwyer and Burkey. On the resumption, Motors soon found themselves 2-1 down when a deflected shot from distance on 50 minutes fell at the far post where Lee Grimshaw profited from some indecision in the Motors rearguard.
Ten minutes later, the visitors were back on level terms, after Ollerenshaw clumsily brought down Glenn Rule inside the box, resulting in him being shown a straight red card and up stepped Ben Holmes to fire the resultant penalty beyond stand-in goalie Adam Freeman.
On 72 minutes, the hosts were reduced to nine when their striker Grimshaw made a reckless tackle on Haydn Cooper in the middle of the pitch and nine minutes later Motors profited from their numerical advantage when Rule played an inch-perfect through ball for Burkey who lobbed the helpless Freeman for what proved to be the winner, his 13th goal of the campaign.
But in the nine minutes of added time, the nine men of Stockport still gave the Motormen some testing moments as they sort an equaliser before the visitors could celebrate another win.
Vauxhall: Crump, Mason, Drummond, Gardner, Mitchell, Heath (Noon 67), Brandon, Rule, Holmes (Cox 77), Cooper (Cross 76), Burkey. Subs not used: Carlin.
