Winsford Utd 0-2 Trafford (From Messenger Newspapers)

Winsford Utd 0-2 Trafford

7:44pm Tuesday 28th August 2012 in Sport

TRAFFORD continued their unbeaten start to the season by beating a resilient Winsford United side on a difficult surface at the Barton Stadium on Saturday, collecting their third clean sheet from three in the process.

The FA Cup tie started as a tight affair, the only chance of note coming when Wayne Welbeck shot wide of Tom Read's net.

In the 13th minute, Trafford broke the deadlock when a lovely chipped ball from Will Ahern was chested down by Kamahl Whight, who surged past the defence and slotted inside Andy Jones' near post.

A minute later they almost doubled their lead. Michael Oates was played in and shot across Jones, but the ball hit the far post and rebounded across the face of goal and out of danger.

Oates was again denied soon after, before Winsford almost brought themselves level. Brian Matthews picked up a loose ball, and from 25 yard tried to chip the ball over Read, who got his fingertips to it, and diverted the ball against the bar and over.

Despite controlling the majority of posession, and finding themselves in good areas on a number of occasions throughout the half, the home side struggled to create clear cut chances and the half came to a close with the visitors still leading.

It was a role reversal in the second half, with Trafford controlling the play throughout, the main difference however, was that they constantly managed to create chances, while keeping the home side relatively quiet.

First, Andy Smart hit a free kick from on the edge of the area wide, before he crossed for Kamahl Whight to crash a volley against the far post with Jones beaten.

A minute later saw another good chance to extend the lead. A Smart free kick created panic inside the Winsford danger area, Martyn Andrews saw his effort saved well by Jones, before the ever threatening Whight rattled the woodwork for a second time, hitting the crossbar.

On 72 minutes, Trafford finally sealed the game. A nice passing move involving a number of players, ended with Ahern playing the ball through for Michael Oates who shrugged off the attentions of the defence, before squeezing the ball under the body of the advancing Jones and the ball rolling over the line. That was his 10th goal in three games, Trafford thought they should have had a penalty soon after when Ahern was bundled over, but the referee decided it was a free-kick rather than a spot-kick, much to the midfielder's dismay.

Winsford had a half-chance to get back into the game on 74 minutes, when Welbeck poked past the advancing Read, but also past the post, while under pressure from Steve Mason. With 10 minutes left to play, home midfielder John Bennett placed his shot wide of the mark, when he ought to have hit the target. Five minutes later Trafford almost added a third, when Martyn Andrews was played in by Paul Ashton, but took too long, and his shot was smothered by Jones.

Then, with the end of the game looming, Ahern caught Bennett with a high challenge, but was only booked despite the home sides claims for a harsher punishment.

The cup tie ended with Trafford happy to be progressing through to the first qualifying round of the FA Cup, where they will meet Runcorn Town, away, in two weeks’ time.