Report: Cammell Laird 1-3 Warrington Town

A premature end to the match didn’t stop Warrington Town progressing to the next round of the Cheshire Senior Cup and a tie against Stockport County.

With six minutes left to play, and the Yellows 3-1 up, half of the floodlights at Kirklands went off, and after a period of waiting for them to return, it was agreed by all parties to call the match there.

The tie itself was being played at the third time of asking, following postponements due to the weather and a re-arranged league game, and Yellows manager Paul Carden opted to play a relatively strong side as he sought to end the club’s winless run.

There were five changes from the team that lost at Peterborough Sports at the weekend, with Mikey O’Neill coming in from the start and proving his worth with two goals.

It was Joe Rodwell-Grant who opened the scoring on 17 minutes, slid through by the impressive Dana Amaral, rolling his man and clinically finishing left-footed into the far corner.

O’Neill scored the pick of the goals on 25, finding the ball after Amaral had won a strong tackle in midfield, and curling a right-foot shot in to the corner from 20 yards out.

They could have had more before the break, both Finlay Cross-Adair and Ollie Southern denied by blocks on the line in the same sequence from a corner, and then Josh Miles clipped a shot wide of the far post on the stroke of half-time.

Much of the game was played in the Cammell Laird half, and that pattern continued in the second half, despite the Yellows now playing in to the strong wind.

Cross-Adair was denied at close range, before Lairds got a goal back with their only real attack of note.

A ball over the top released Tom Haynes, and he was denied by a fine save by Dan Atherton, but Jamie Eaton swept home the rebound.

Despite having their advantage halved, the Yellows were never not in control of the game.

Youngster Levi Welsh had a couple of chances off the bench, and Lairds ‘keeper Josh Brooks denied Josh Amis one-on-one.

The third goal came on 81 minutes, Miles finding space on the left and his cross was steered home in to the corner by O’Neill, shortly before the lights failed.

It seemed that the officials and players were going to wait on the pitch for the lights to come back on, but after a spell, it was then agreed to end the match there and then, completing the Yellows' win on this ground in this competition for a second successive game.

Cammell Laird: Brooks, Beaman, Lloyd, Ludbrook (Perry), Graham, Cooper, Alldas (McGregor), Jones, Doyle (Gordon), Eaton, Haynes (Chwalko).

Warrington Town: Atherton, Bennett, Gumbs (Clarke), Southern, Hont, Amaral, Gill, O’Neill, Cross-Adair (Welsh), Rodwell-Grant (Amis), Miles. Unused subs: Basnett, Adams.