Neston slump while Oxton enjoy 6-3 victory

Oct 22 2008 by Our Correspondent, Birkenhead News

NESTON South Wirral slumped to their first defeat of the season, going down 5-2 at South Cheshire.

The home side took the lead early on, when the unmarked striker squeezed a shot past Paul Shepherd in the Neston goal.

Neston then began to take charge, but were guilty of squandering several chances before Jimmy Rigby fired into the roof of the net for the equaliser.

The Wirral side were stunned just minutes into the second period, when Cheshire regained the lead.

But after a spell of sustained pressure, Bernie Ford-Jones levelled for Neston with a deft finish.

Sadly, Neston were punished for wasting possession, when the home side broke away to edge ahead with 10 minutes left.

The visitors were then opened up as they pressed for an equaliser and two late goals gave South Cheshire a flattering win.

Elsewhere, a Mark Wilkie ha-ttrick helped the second team to a 4-1 win over South Cheshire, while the sixt team routed Timperley 11-2. The other Neston sides all found themselves on the receiving end’s of defeats in their fixtures.

This weekend, Neston’s first team face a double header, hosting Brooklands in the league on Saturday before entertaining Sunderland in the National Vase on Sunday.

Oxton followed up last week’s victory against Brooklands with a resounding 6-3 victory away to Timperley in the Northern Premier League on Saturday.

The Wirral side started superbly with some fantastic attacking play, racing into a 4-0 lead in the first half before Timperley registered.

Ali McKenzie maintained his excellent goalscoring form with another hat-trick after scoring the first two goals – the first a neat finish from Nikolas Heyes' cross, while the second was a vision of beauty as Oxton counter-attacked with lightening speed as Timperley stood and watched.

Short corners were then converted by Sion Owen and Dave Given before Timperley pulled one back.

Huw Collins made amends for his own error on the stroke of half time as he cleared off the line.

Any ambitions of the home side building on their strong finish to the first half were over within the first minute of the restart, when Dave Bailey won possession and fed McKenzie.

Despite being on a hat-trick, he fed Gordon Moore for the simplest of finishes. Timperley managed to pull a goal back before McKenzie completed his hat-trick with another exquisite finish from close range.

Althought the game had been put beyond doubt, Timperley still had their chances – missing a penalty and having a short corner disallowed before converting their third.

Oxton saw out the match thanks to some top goalkeeping from Simon Dolan. They will look to make it three wins in a row next week when Durham make the long trip to Wirral.

Meanwhile, the second team earned a 2-2 draw at Colwyn Bay. Chris Lovell and a Sam Crich last minute equaliser gave Oxton a share of the spoils.