Maine Road 1 Trafford 0 (From Messenger Newspapers)

Maine Road 1 Trafford 0

9:47am Tuesday 8th January 2013 in Sport

TRAFFORD’S 12 game unbeaten run came to an end on Monday night when they were dumped out of the Manchester Premier Cup at the quarter final stage by Maine Road.

The North West Counties side fielded six former Trafford players and were on top in the opening stages with Tom Bailey firing over and Matthew Warburton seeing his low drive from the edge of the area well held by Tom Read.

Trafford’s flying right winger Shelton Payne cut in from his flank in the 16th minute but blasted inches over and then leading scorer Michael Oates squandered a gilt edged chance when he was put through by Martyn Andrews but denied by a fine save at point blank range by Greg Hall.

Oates header in the 24th minute was held by Hall but Trafford were stunned four minutes later when Maine Road took the lead, Tom Bentham collecting the ball 25 yards from goal and blasting a hard low drive that flew into the bottom corner past the despairing Read.

Sixty seconds later the effervescent Warburton almost doubled his team’s advantage when he volleyed over from the edge of the penalty area.

Despite enjoying the majority of the possession in the second half, Trafford struggled to create any clearcut chances against the superbly drilled Maine Road defence and Steve Mason’s header from an Andy Smart corner was one of their few efforts on target.

In fact, it was the home side who could easily have added to their lead on a number of occasions, Warburton seeing his low drive blocked by Mason and then Tom Bentham cracking in a tremendous dipping volley that was brilliantly tipped over by Read.

Warburton went close once more from a right wing corner and Read produced another superb save in the 75th minute to deny the impressive Sam Hare.

Trafford’s solitary chance in the closing minutes fell to midfielder Melford Knight but Greg Hall once again showed his class with a fingertip save to turn his volley over the crossbar.

The final whistle signalled a well-deserved victory for the hard working and skilful Maine Road outfit and Trafford will certainly have to up their game on Saturday when they entertain league leaders Mossley at Shawe View, kick off 3 pm.

Then on Tuesday night they face another daunting cup fixture when they travel to Marine FC for a Doodson Cup Second Round Tie kicking off at 7.45 p.m.