Warrington Rylands 2 Lancaster City 1: Hosts recover to down Dolly Blues

Despite going ahead in the first half through Rudy Misambo, City had their lead overturned by Mo Touray and Osebi Abadaki who scored either side of the break, and were then reduced to 10 men during their pursuit of an equaliser which was ultimately in vain.

The hosts started brightly before Lancaster hit back with chances of their own, one for Nic Evangelinos which was saved well by Luke Pilling, then another from the consequent corner which was redirected goalwards and prompted claims that it had crossed the line.

The officials didn’t see it that way, though, and the score temporarily remained 0-0.

It wasn’t too long before Lancaster found their goalscorer – Rudy Misambo with his second in Dolly Blue, the centre-back meeting Sam Bailey’s long throw-in with a header beyond Pilling in Rylands’ goal.

But City’s lead was unfortunately short-lived, as recent arrival to Gorsey Lane, Touray, found himself opposite Sam Waller from 18 yards. Joe Adams had been fouled on the byline in the box, resulting in the spot-kick a few minutes before half time.

Touray made no mistake in converting it, opting for the opposite corner to Waller.

After the break, Lancaster put some initial pressure on Rylands with a spell of threatening, controlled football but couldn’t create too much to threaten Pilling, other than a dangerous free-kick from Sam Bailey, and the hosts grew back into the game, eventually setting up the decisive action.

On the hour mark they broke forward and Abadaki burst clear of the last line to find himself in a one-on-one situation, from which point he fired past the onrushing Waller to complete the turnaround. Mark Fell made positive, attacking changes as the duo of Jake Connelly and Owen Robinson were introduced in quick succession, but with 15 minutes of time remaining, Niall Cowperthwaite received a second yellow and was dismissed, leaving Lancaster a man down in their assaults on the Rylands goal.