LES Miranda helped Blues put their midweek nightmare behind them.

He took his tally to five goals in two games to account for Abbey Hey but Joe Gibiliru's men were unconvincing against one of the league's weakest teams.

Luckily the Legend had settled the outcome inside 20 minutes.

With just two minutes on the clock Lee Duckworth fed Darren Connell out on the left and his cross was collected by Miranda and despatched into the top right corner of the net.

Blues then almost handed Abbey an equaliser four minutes later when Dave Ridler's slip let in Michael Kearney, but goalkeeper Michael Langley responded rapidly to avert the danger.

The visitors doubled their tally soon afterwards.

Chris Sheppard's long cross found Miranda lurking on the far side of the area and his header was powerful enough to evade two defenders who could only help the ball over the line.

Winsford's leading marksman went on the hunt for a second successive hat-trick and he was unlucky with two efforts before the interval, both of which were saved by Joe Molloy.

One minute after the break he was at it again but his goalbound shot took a deflection to take it inches over the bar.

From then on the hosts were slowly allowed to come back into the game.

Kearney crafted chance after chance but Blues' back four were alert and Langley was rarely called into meaningful action.

The introduction of Phil Mason revitalised the Winsford attack and he might have had a double to match Miranda's before full time.

His first effort scraped the bar and the second was narrowly off target.

"It wasn't a great performance," said Blues' secretary Bob Astles, but their 30-strong travelling supporters went home happy after a fifth away day success of the season.

STAR MAN: Michael Owens.


BLUES: Langley, Sayer, Duckworth, Barnes, Ridler, Bluck, Owens, Showers, Connell (Mason 79), Miranda (Ennion 86), Sheppard
Subs not used: Callaghan, Pomford, Kennedy
Attendance: 52