Lancaster City 2-1 Warrington Town

Lancaster City saw off top of the table Warrington Town to keep up their push for the play-offs.
Jacob Gregory takes on a Warrington defender in the driving rain at Giant Axe. Picture: Tony NorthJacob Gregory takes on a Warrington defender in the driving rain at Giant Axe. Picture: Tony North
Jacob Gregory takes on a Warrington defender in the driving rain at Giant Axe. Picture: Tony North

A Zach Clark double was enough to give the Dolly Blues all three points at Giant Axe on Saturday despite Warrington almost staging a comeback late on.

Clark gave Lancaster a deserved lead on 58 minutes when he poked home into the bottom right-hand-corner from close range following several blocked efforts.

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Nine minutes later the striker doubled the lead in bizarre fashion when Craig Carney’s shot from 20 yards out struck the striker and trickled over the line as it wrong-footed goalkeeper Karl Wills.

The champions elect hit back on 72 minutes when substitute Joe Holt played a delightful cross into the box and Scott Metcalfe headed home to give the visitors hope of a comeback.

In the final moments of the game Mike Hale made a fantastic double save to deny the league’s top scorer Ciaran Kilheeney.

The Warrington marksman went one-on-one with Hale, but the stopper blocked his initial effort well and tipped the follow-up around the post. Some heroic defending from City midfielder

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Tom Watson then denied Ged Kinsella a stoppage time equaliser, as he cleared Kinsella’s goal-bound header off the line to all but seal three points for Phil Brown’s side.

Carney had a golden opportunity to make all three points safe for City in the 93rd minute but after being played in by Tom Kilifin the midfielder shot straight at Wills in the Warrington goal.

Lancaster started the game brightly and were on top for most of the first half with Jacob Gregory causing plenty of problems down the right flank.

Gregory led a counter-attack after 10 minutes and found himself bearing down on the Warrington goal but defender James McCarten recovered just in time to clear the danger.

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Ryan Winder almost gave the home side an early lead but his free-kick from 20 yards out curled inches over the bar.

Despite their league position, Warrington rarely threatened the Lancaster goal in the first half.

Kinsella went closest for the visitors just before the half-time whistle, when his curling left-footed effort went inches past the post.

The action then came in the second half with the Dolly Blues moving within five points of the play-offs ahead of the Easter Monday derby at Kendal Town.