Atherton Collieries picked up a second win from three home matches following an end-to-end encounter with Hanley Town.
Manager Daniel Lafferty named an unchanged team, looking to recreate the fast start on show during Saturday’s game, and his side duly delivered.
In the seventh minute, Chinedu Uche broke along the left flank before teeing up Kielen Adams, who drove into the box and through the defense before unleashing a powerful shot home, his first goal of the campaign.
Further first half chances came and went, with Colls stopper Harvey Bardsley called upon to make a fine save with his feet before a Hanley defender made a last ditch block to prevent Liam Sheppard from converting into an empty net, having already outpaced the goalkeeper.
The visitors were truthfully wasteful with a plethora of chances throughout the game, and though Harvey Bardsley recorded his second clean sheet in the Stripes with a solid performance, it wasn’t for lack of effort from the Town.
The match remained on a knife edge in the second half. The Collieries grew into their control of the game, but the Hanley counter-attacks remained frequent.
There was plenty of perhaps ambitious finishing from the Black & Whites too, with Adams, Uche and Rodney Ajayi all enjoying multiple sighters from outside of the box that failed to test the Hanley goal.
Liam Sheppard delivered a man of the match performance as he led the Collieries defence from the front, relentlessly pursuing the ball, forcing mistakes and preventing the hosts from ever comfortably retaining possession.
The visitors picked up a succession of bookings as the tide began to settle in the Colls favour, and despite an injury time sequence of corners, remained unable to break the Stripes defence.
Next up, the Collieries welcome Irlam in FA Cup action at the Dreams2Reality Stadium on Saturday 22nd August, before a potential home league tie with Padiham on Tuesday 25th, if not an FA Cup replay. An away trip to Congleton follows in the FA Trophy on Saturday 28th.
