Report: Hyde United 2-2 Warrington Town

Warrington Town twice fought from behind to draw 2-2 at high-flying Hyde United.

Both teams scored in either half in an entertaining game that could have gone either way, though the visitors will have been happier with the point that extends their unbeaten run to six ahead of Saturday’s trip to Rylands.

Torrential rain pre-game fortunately subsided for much of the match played on an artificial pitch that the Yellows struggled to get to grips with as the ball skidded off the surface.

There hadn’t been much in the game when Hyde took the lead on 20 minutes. Harry Ditchfield whipped in a fine ball from the right that was nodded home at the back post by Jack Redshaw.

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That gave the home side impetus and forward Manasse Mampala was regularly asking questions of the Yellows defence, while the press of the home side was making it difficult for the visitors to get a foothold in the game.

Matty McDonald’s looping header hit the top of Dan Atherton’s crossbar before the offside flag saved the Yellows from going two goals behind after Tom Pratt had expertly steered home Liam Tongue’s left-wing cross.

Tony Thompson punched away a dangerous Edy Maieco free-kick as Hyde pressed for a second before the break, but the two sides went in at half time level.

Luke Duffy cut in from the left and fired a powerful shot across Atherton and in to the far corner, but Hyde were unhappy that the ball had hit the referee in the build-up, despite the fact it had intercepted a pass between two Yellows’ players.

The fall out from that resulted in Hyde manager Nick Spooner getting a yellow card in the dugout, and they came out fired up at the start of the second half.

It took just four minutes for them to regain the lead, Brad Roscoe glancing home from a corner to make it 2-1.

Hyde might have had a penalty on the hour mark when Pratt went down under contact from Evan Gumbs in a not too dissimilar way to how Gumbs conceded a penalty in the win over Belper on Saturday, but the referee was unmoved.

By now he was far from the flavour of the month with the home faithful, and that worsened when the Yellows went up the other end and scored almost straight away.

Sean Williams slotted a ball through for Josh Amis, who had sprung the offside trap, and his shot or cross across the goal was bundled in by McDonald.

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The game swung end to end for a spell, with Mampala’s run down the left ending in a cross that was just beyond Maieco.

Mark Beesley rolled the dice on 66 minutes with a triple sub, bringing on Jordan Buckley, Jay Harris and Stefan Mols to freshen up his side.

Buckley forced a comfortable save from Atherton, while Harris was perhaps fortunate to stay on the pitch for a couple of fouls after already picking up a yellow card for bringing down Matthew Fearnley off the ball.

Both sides had chances to win it, McDonald forcing a save from Atherton after his first touch had taken him wide, while Thompson saved well from McEvoy after another Mampala rampage.

In the end, the points were shared and both sides jumped up a place in the top four.

Hyde United: Atherton, Ditchfield, Fleming, Spooner (Neavin), Tongue, Roscoe, Maieco (McEvoy), Perry (Fearnley), Mampala, Redshaw, Pratt. Unused sub: Sami.

Warrington Town: Thompson, Walker, White, Hannigan, Gumbs, McDonald, Buckley-Ricketts (Mols), Williams, Amis (Buckley), Dixon (Harris), Duffy. Unused sub: Clarke.