Trafford 5 Spennymoor Town 3 (From Messenger Newspapers)

Trafford 5 Spennymoor Town 3

2:04pm Monday 24th September 2012 in Sport

TRAFFORD produced a five star performance to demolish Spennymoor’s unbeaten record and advance into the third qualifying round of the FA Cup.

The North Easterners came to Shawe View having won all 10 competitive games this season without conceding a goal but that incredible record lasted just eight minutes as the quicksilver Shelton Payne was upended in the area and coolly placed the resultant spot kick into the bottom corner past the helpless Robert Dean.

In the 16th minute Trafford doubled their lead when Michael Oates broke free on the right and set up Paul Ashton who lashed the ball home from eight yards.

Two minutes later the score was a surreal 3-0 as a low drive from 25 yards by Shelton Payne was misjudged by Dean and the ball flew off his body and into the roof of the net.

Spennymoor then began to show their pedigree and dominated the midfield with Wayne Phillips miskicking at the back post, Lewis Dodds shooting weakly wide from the edge of the area and Keith Graydon firing in a long range effort that was comfortably held by Tom Read.

Dodds screwed another shot wide just past the half hour mark and then in the 42nd minute Read superbly tipped over a deflected shot by Phillips.

Deep into injury time, the visitors were thrown a lifeline when a neat move down the right ended with Chris Mason powering a header into the roof of the net at the near post.

Roared on by their magnificent supporters, Spennymoor pushed forward at the start of the second half and in the 50th minute Kallum Griffiths made it 3-2 when he curled a fine low drive into the bottom corner from 18 yards.

However, within two minutes Trafford restored their two goal cushion when Andy Smart struck a free kick from 25 yards that took a wicked deflection of the defensive wall and wrong-footed the helpless Dean.

And the tie was effectively sealed in the 67th minute with a brilliantly created and supremely executed goal by Paul Ashton, the left midfielder bursting forward, playing a neat one-two with Will Ahern and then cooly curling the ball past Dean and into the bottom corner.

Both teams continued to push forward in search of further goals with Michael Oates wasting a good position by firing high and wide from the left and Town substitute Stephen Richardson blasting a shot straight at Read from 15 yards.

Oates then shot into the side-netting following weak defending by the visitors and in the 84th minute Town were awarded a penalty with Read produced a magnificent save to his left to thwart Richardson.

The scoring was completed in the 88th minute when the ball fell to Andrew Stephenson 25 yards from goal and he struck a magnificent first time volley that flew into the top corner.

Trafford substitute Tom Schofield then struck the post from 12 yards before the final whistle arrived to signal a memorable victory for Trafford against an extremely impressive Northern League outfit.

On Tuesday Trafford entertain New Mills at Shawe View in an Evo-Stik League Division One North encounter kicking off at 7-45 p.m. before returning to cup action on Saturday when they travel to Harrogate Railway Athletic in the First Qualifying Round of the FA Trophy.