Division One

Irchester United  6    Wellingborough Whitworth  0

Friday, 06 November 2009

Irchester moved to within two points of tabletopping Peterborough Northern Star with a dominant display in this derby encounter.

The Romans looked lively from the off with Paul Caswell steering a shot narrowly wide of the far post from Nicki Young's through ball in the home side's first attack.

The opening goal arrived ten minutes in when Mark Dudley overlapped on the right and delivered an inch perfect cross for Caswell to head home.

The Romans doubled their lead after 19 minutes when the Flourmen's defence failed to deal with Mark Hackett's free kick and Caswell found space in the box to fire past Craig Neighbour.

For a while the visitors fought back with Andy Bennett chipping just too high and Deven Ellwood forcing Carl Mackney into a full length save.

The Romans strengthened their grip on proceedings two minutes before the break when David Martin's clever ball in behind the defence found Young who drilled a low drive beyond Neighbour.

Caswell almost completed his hat trick early in the second half with a volley from distance which landed on the roof of the net, while a good spell rom Whitworth saw Niall Belfon turn an Ellwod cross wide at the near post and Ellwood clip the top of the bar with a volley.

Irchester regained the initiative late on doubling their tally.

Young scored his second goal from a Mike Houghton cross after 79 minutes, and after Mackney produced a fine tip over from Matt Freeman's header to preserve his clean sheet, Chris Caswell fired in a stunning 25 yard free kick to join his brother on the scoresheet with three minutes remaining.

The Romans completed their tally four minutes into added time when Alan Campbell's quickly taken free kick found substitute Darryl Lawman who rode a challenge before scoring with a low shot.

Irchester: Carl Mackney, Ryan Hill (Michael Duroe), Mark Dudley, Mark Hackett, Phil Lawrence, Paul Caswell, Nicki Young, David Martin (Darryl Lawman), Chris Caswell, Alan Campbell, Mike Houghton (Sean Hamblin).

Whitworth: Craig Neighbour, Anthony Sharp, Jamie Black, James Gorman, Tom Francis (David Green), Marcus Wharton, Luke Raftery (Ryan Lovell), Matt Freeman, Andy Bennett (Kris Line), Niall Belfon, Deven Ellwood.