Six goal demolition for Abbey Hey against Stafford Town
Abbey Hey returned to winning ways after a comprehensive 6-0 victory over Stafford Town in the North West Counties First Division South.
Braces from Ben Halfacre, Dylan Fitzgerald and Elliott Fenton secured all three points for Abbey, who played against ten-men for the whole second half after Stafford’s Declan Arber was given a red-card for an elbow.
After a tight first-half at the Abbey Stadium, the home side led at the break 1-0 courtesy of Halfacre’s finish after only five minutes. The forward trapped the ball down from a cross into the area from the right, before striking low into the bottom-right corner on the turn to give us a much needed early lead.
Fitzgerald doubled the lead three minutes into the second half, finishing low across goal to beat the keeper from close-range, before Halfacre made it 3-0 minutes later beating the keeper to the ball to finish low into the bottom-right corner for his 18th goal of the season.
Fitzgerald earned his brace to make it 4-0 on the hour mark, slotting the ball home in a crowded penalty area, which went into the back off the net with the aid of a deflection.
Fenton scored his first goal back in an Abbey Hey shirt to make it 5-0 with twenty minutes to go, firing low across goal from the right to beat the keeper with a fierce effort.
It got better for the substitute who made it 6-0 with five minutes to go, slotting home at the far post to beat the keeper to the ball after coming off his line to meet a cross-in from the right.
Terry Hincks’ and Chris Woods’ side secured an impressive three points that sees Abbey move back up to fourth in the league table. They will look to make it back-to-back wins in the league on Tuesday evening when we travel to Oswestry to take on bottom side St Martins (8pm kick-off).
Abbey Hey: Lawton (GK), Dunford, Grimshaw, Hamzat, Norris (C), Murray, Parker, Lazenbury, Fitzgerald (Fenton 62’), Clooney (Grant 35’), Halfacre (M.Nolan 72’)
Unused Subs: Smith, Graham
Attendance: 85
