Cheadle Town 1-2 Irlam

For everything that was gained in that well-earned win at Holker on Saturday, it seemed to be all lost in six minutes late into the second half of this match.

At the end of the Holker match report we said that all we could do is win our games and see what happens; this loss is a major blow and now leaves us with one card less in our hand.

What makes it more galling is that this is a match we should have won; yet again I have to type the words "we should have been out of sight" and yet again we have let a team off the hook by not converting the decent chances we had.

And what chances.

In the 35th minute Josh Stevenson used his blistering pace to steal a march on the Irlam defence and round the keeper; with the goal at his mercy his shot didn't quite have the legs it needed, thus allowing an Irlam defender to hack it off the line.

A minute later and we were given a penalty; that chance went begging as Magida's kick was saved by the keeper.

Three minutes before half-time, Josh Stevenson's ball in from the right looked an easy tap-in for Liam Tongue but it somehow ended up being scooped over the bar from a yard out.

Given the chances we had squandered, the goal that gave us the lead a minute after the restart was in slightly odd circumstances.

Mike Sherrington advanced on goal, checked inside and then went for it, albeit with not the strongest shot you'll ever see; it somehow still managed to squirm under the keeper's body and roll in.

That was it in terms of our chances for the rest of the match but we still appeared to be in decent control of the match.

As we entered the final twelve minutes the only thing that had caused us concern was a goalmouth scramble just after the hour mark where we defended well and managed to eventually hack the ball away.

But on that 78th minute the foundations of our hard work started to crumble.

A driven cross in from the right was parried clear by Steve Piggott with the loose ball hammered home through a sea of bodies and into the top corner by Lawlor.

Irlam then pressed on and got their winner with only six minutes of the match remaining when a free-kick in from the right wasn't cleared and, after a short moment of goalmouth havoc, was slammed home from close range by Kpohgomou.

Five games left. Next up is an awkward away fixture at Manchester Northwich Villa before our final home game of the season against Barnton next Wednesday evening. Six points are a must now....

TEAM: Piggott, McLaughlin, Magida, Trucca, Moore, Smallwood, Stevenson, Tongue, Sherrington, Whyatt, Horan (Nsimbe). SUBS: O'Donnell, Halliwell, Nsimbe.