Cheadle Town 1-4 Widnes

All good things come to an end, right? How about all bad things coming to an end? Please.

This club has had worse runs. I personally remember Cheadle Town going eleven games without a win towards the front half of the 2006-2007 season, broken by an Aaron Riley (remember him?) strike midway through the second half to give us a 1-0 home win over Chadderton.

This latest defeat makes it seven matches without a victory in all competitions. Yes, not as bad as 06-07 but, and I say this with the utmost respect to Mssrs Riley, Hussain, Martin, O'Keefe, Roberts & Roberts et al, more galling as the current squad is the best I've seen tread the turf for Cheadle Town FC.

This squad will come good. It has to. It's too good not to and until it does there's nothing else we can do but wail and gnash a few collective teeth.

The first half of this particular encounter was breathless and provided good value for the everyday neutral.

With just 50 seconds gone Sam Noar dispossessed the Widnes keeper and put in a cross only for it to end up going out for a corner, from which Nathan Tosum struck the crossbar with his effort at the far post.

Straight up the other end Ben Jupp was forced into making a good block before Sam Noar made the Widnes keeper do the same down the other end.

Ben Jupp was on hand again to prevent the first goal, recovering well to save after a shot had taken a nasty deflection before we then went straight up the other end and took the lead, Sam Noar latching onto a through ball on the right and drilling home.

Sam was inches away from making it 2-0 on 18 minutes as he just failed to connect with a cross before Widnes got themselves on terms three minutes later when Jack Graham rifled home from the angle.

On 25 minutes Rick Whyatt's cross from the left was set for the head of Sam Noar but the keeper managed to snatch it away from him just at the last moment before said keeper then gifted the ball straight to Sam and then making a decent recovery to deny him what seemed to be an easy opportunity to score.

Nathan Tosum and Liam Tongue tried their luck from distance to no avail before Ben Jupp made another good block just before half time, coming out to smother.

Arguably Widnes had the better of the second half as they continually pressed the ball in our own half ('gegenpress', if you will) and put us under considerable pressure.

Joe Shaw was forced to make a key block in the area on 53 minutes with a (debutant) Waldron backwards header finding the feet of a Widnes forward whose attempted lob over Jupp was weak.

In the blink of an eye the match was over as a contest as Widnes bagged three goals in a seven-minute spell.

Chris Lomax got the first of a brace on 67 minutes with a neat finish into the top corner, struck from the angle on the right on 71 minutes with brother George sending in a looping drive on the 74th minute.

Sam Noar looked like he was going to reduce the deficit on the 83rd minute but was felled on the edge of the area before substitute and debutant Reece Webb charged in from the right on 86 minutes and forced a good stop from the keeper.

Thence went the final whistle and the accompanying bewildered looks, all-to-common of late.

And off we go to Barrow-in-Furness tomorrow [Saturday] for an away trip to Holker Old Boys and with it the start of a new month which is something to look forward to, because the one that has just passed has sure been bloody unpleasant.

Onwards.

TEAM: Jupp, Todd, Magida, German, Shaw, Waldron, Whyatt (Pearson), Tongue, Noar, Tosum (Webb), C Sherrington (Hincks). SUBS: Hincks, Pearson, McLaughlin, Webb, Horan.