Report: Bishop’s Stortford 1-4 Warrington Town
Warrington Town made light work of their longest away trip in National League North with a 4-1 win at Bishop’s Stortford.
The Yellows set the tone from the kick-off on their 360-mile round trip and took a deserved lead through Connor Woods midway through the first half.
A Dan Atherton penalty save kept them in front but they ran riot in the second half after the visitors had been reduced to 10 men scoring three goals in seven minutes.
That included a second for Woods, who would then set up skipper Josh Amis for his first goal of the season, before Isaac Buckley-Ricketts raced through to slide home.
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It was the second time in seven away games this season that the Yellows had registered four and they started the game with real purpose, no doubt with memories of slow starts on the road earlier in the campaign.
After a couple of half sightings at goal, Bohan Dixon released Matt Grivosti through the middle with a superb pass only for ‘keeper Jack Giddens to rush out his goal and do just enough to force Grivosti wide and enable a defender to get back and snuff out the chance.
Most of the game was being played in the hosts’ half and Buckley-Ricketts had a shot saved by the legs of the ‘keeper before the deadlock was deservedly broken on 18 minutes.
A long ball down the right channel by Atherton fell for Woods, who cut inside his man and steered a left-foot shot home.
After their dominance of the first 25 minutes, it was inevitable that the Yellows wouldn’t be able to maintain that for the whole half and soon, Bishop’s Stortford managed to find a foothold in the game.
They were gifted a chance right back in to it on 36 minutes when Zain Walker’s shot came back off the inside of the post and the referee awarded a penalty as players raced for the rebound.
Up stepped Tosin Olufemi, but he was denied by Atherton, saving a penalty for a second successive week and this time one of his team-mates was on hand as Mitch Duggan headed the rebound safe.
The hosts’ hopes of getting back in to the game were dealt a blow within eight minutes of the restart when Fraser Alexander was shown a second yellow card for chopping down Buckley-Ricketts, despite some desperate pleas for a case of mistaken identity from the home bench.
Despite losing a man, Stortford then enjoyed their best spell of possession of the game until they were blown out of sight by a devastating trio of counter attacks.
Sean Williams intercepted a quick free kick in the Stortford half and found Amis, leading the line from the start for the first time this season, and he released Woods to bury a now trademark right-foot strike across the ‘keeper from the right hand side of the box.
Barely two minutes later, Buckley-Ricketts drove through the heart of the Stortford defence and released Woods for what looked like being a hat-trick, until he lofted the ball for Amis to tap in for 3-0.
And then on 74 minutes, a wonderful slide through pass by Williams set Buckley-Ricketts free and he slotted a left-footed shot home for his fifth goal of the season with the ‘keeper helpless.
Both sides would probably have been happy to call it a day there in the Essex rain, though there was still time for a blot on the Yellows copy book – as they conceded a fourth penalty in two games.
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Dec Walker was the culprit, bringing down Gio McGregor right on the edge of the box with five minutes left, and this time Olufemi had just about enough to convert from the spot despite the best efforts of Atherton, who was denied his clean sheet in the process.
But it was mere consolation as the Yellows registered their third win on the road this season ahead of back-to-back home games against Farsley (Tuesday) and Peterborough Sports (next Saturday).
Bishop’s Stortford: Giddens, Sodje, Beadle, McGregor, Foxley (Haines), Olufemi, Parker, Walker (Thomas), Greene (Howard), Peters, Alexander. Unused subs: Messaoudin, Cracknell.
Warrington Town: Atherton, Walker, Woods (Bennett), Williams (Hannigan), Amis (Buckley), Dixon, Buckley-Ricketts, Duggan, Wisdom, Grivosti, Clarke. Unused subs: Goudie, Gill.
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