Macclesfield News - written by local people

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 East Cheshire Football  League.

Round up of this weekend’s games

Club AZ continued their fine form with a 1-0 victory against  Old Alts Vets  at Mulberry Sports Centre . Paul Bethal’s seventh goal of the season on thirty five minutes proved to be the winner in  a tight game which was well marshalled by referee Nigel Poole.  Vet’s striker Ian Hunt’s long awaited return to the team was overshadowed  by his dismissal late on.

At Crossford Bridge Old Alts  thought they’d managed to earn a point at home to Poynton and condemn the visitors to their fourth consecutive draw  but were denied  by a late  John Cairns strike.

In a frantic first period Poynton scored twice in the opening fifteen minutes  through Cairns and a disputed penalty converted by  Scott Bajic penalty but twice Alts drew level thanks to Anton Dankavoh and James Davenport. Poynton scored again through Bajic  to make it  3-2 at the interval but they really should have been further in front having missed a host of chances .

With an injury forcing Kevin Lea off the pitch Poynton had to reshuffle their team and Mike Long took full advantage to pull the hosts back yet again to make the score 3-3.  With the game seemingly heading for a draw , John Cairns proved why he is one of the deadliest strikers in the ECL as he raced through to calmly slot the ball home to the obvious relief of his jubilant team mates.

Old Alts Youth , like Poynton managed to crack their draw hoodoo as they eventually defeated a tired Mary Dendy  side, ironically on the adjacent pitch to the Old Alts Poynton game . Dendy , who were missing eleven first team players from their line up, tried hard but  simply didn’t have enough punch to break through a resilient Youth defence.   The home side dominated possession early on  but woeful finishing  meant  they failed to find the net  until the seventeenth minute  when top scorer James Pickering eventually broke the deadlock. Dendy however equalised barely two minutes later , Martin Brunker taking advantage of a goalkeeping error to pass the ball into an unguarded net.

MDFA Young Ref of the year Chris Cooke

Dendy worked valiantly to keep their opponents at bay  but a combination of  injury and bad luck contrived against them. Fifteen minutes into the second half  as Dendy’s   full back ran in to try to clear  the ball  he watched in horror as the ball pinged off his head  and wrong footed Jamie Gibson in goal  to give the hosts the lead . Dendy’s misery was compounded as bang on ninety minutes referee Chis Cooke  pointed to the spot  and up stepped Dave Richards to smash home past stand in keeper Chris Shepherd  to make the final score 3-1. It was a landmark goal for Richards as following a wager at the beginning of the season made with his team mates  he can now officially get his hair cut!!

Wilmslow Sports get up their title challenge  condemning Poynton Nomads to their first defeat in the league this season. Tom Gill opened the scoring  in the first half for the visitors  and they doubled their lead with ten minutes remaining  as they were gifted an own goal.