TRAFFORD made the 300-mile round trip to Dunston on Saturday and returned with a priceless three points in a seven-goal thriller.

Following a frantic opening period which saw both keepers called upon to make excellent saves, Trafford’s Lewis Salmon was sent sprawling in the sodden penalty area by Dunston’s centre-half.

The young striker picked himself up and dispatched the resulting penalty to put Trafford 1-0 up after 25 minutes.

This sparked the home side into action and their number seven, Jack Elliot, began to apply some pressure down the visitors' left flank and after one of his pin-point crosses was headed over the bar, Dunston’s Scott Heslop made no mistake a second time to nod an equaliser on 31 minutes.

Perhaps with one eye on the imminent break, Trafford were caught cold in first-half stoppage time when a foray by Dunston’s left-back, Dan Halliday, resulted in him mis-controlling the ball but somehow managing to push it to Heslop, who squeezed it in at the near post from an almost impossible angle.

The second half began with Trafford’s big centre-back Keil O’Brien withdrawn through injury. Shawe View stalwart Chris Palmer came on at left-back and Joel Amado was employed at centre-half and went on to have a fine game in his emergency role.

On 52 minutes, Dunston’s star man Elliot was also taken off with an injury and it gave Trafford more of the ball and within four minutes of the change, Jake Kenny’s deep cross from the right evaded both Dunston central defenders and Salmon leapt for his, and Trafford’s, second goal of the game.

By now Ross Davidson was conducting the midfield for the yellows, and Trafford’s number eight capped a man-of-the-match performance on the hour when he dispatched a powerful sweeping shot from just outside the box to make it 3-2 to Tom Baker's side.

If anyone thought that was the end of the drama they were mistaken.

A speculative cross from Dunston’s left somehow bounced like a pinball between Trafford keeper Matt Cooper’s fists and the underside of the bar and dropped in to make the score 3-3.

The drama was still not over, as Baker sent on Darius Palma, and he made an immediate impact, firstly firing a wicked deflected shot that was somehow saved by the Dunston stopper, then scoring the winning goal on 80 minutes with a wonderful curling 20-yard shot from the right.

The win moved Trafford up to eighth in the BetVictor North West Division, just two points outside the top four. They host Marine on Saturday, kick off 3pm.