WINSFORD United repeated their trick of fluffing a lead before bowing out after a 10-goals thriller.

Blues, as in the first tussle between the two, were left to rue poor defending as they were hit for six by the Manchester men.

Gareth Feeney was Flixton’s hat-trick hero.

Winsford’s defence, exposed time and again by a flimsy midfield, will need to end a habit of letting the opposition through so soon after the forwards score at the other end.

On 10 minutes Shaun Came headed the hosts in front, but Flixton were soon level.

Blues keeper Lee Grannell did well to push Chris Smith’s shot onto the post and the ball rebounded to Andrew Keogh on the edge of the area.

But, with little threat, Elliot Ledwards dived in to concede a penalty, Smith stepping up to send Grannell the wrong way.

Dave Tasker and Stuart Wellstead both tested James Jowsey in the visitor’s goal, while Smith and Keogh did likewise at the other end.

Winsford recaptured the lead before the break when Wellstead’s cross from the byline was scrambled home by Tasker at the second attempt.

But immediately after the restart Feeney scored the first of his three goals to make it 2-2.

Inside a minute Wellstead restored his team’s lead when his back header from Lee Duckworth’s free kick found the top corner.

Winsford piled on the pressure after that in a bid to stretch their advantage but, committing numbers forward, they were made to pay.

Feeney added his second on 55 minutes from a breakaway, and Oliver Barnes put the visitors ahead for the first time in the match soon afterwards in a similar fashion.

It looked all over when Keogh’s scuffed shot was allowed to trickle over the line on 72 minutes but, to their credit, Blues fought back.

Came scored with another powerful header five minutes from time to make it 5-4.

Winsford laid siege to the Flixton goal in search of an equaliser to force extra time but Feeney sprinted clear in stoppage time to settle the outcome, again at the end of a counter-raid.


Star Man Lee Duckworth
Winsford Grannell (GK), Wakefield, Came, Duckworth, Ledwards, Purdue (Williams 87), McNichol (McKay 75), Bryning (Bayley 68), Hancock, Tasker, Wellstead
Sub not used Parker (GK)
Att 60