Alport 3 St Helens Town 0
A hugely impressive first 45 minutes was enough to secure three points and ensured Whitchurch Alport would lead the First Division Table going into the Boxing Day fixtures. Two Mike Blundell goals and another from skipper Si Everall had the Reds out of sight within 34 minutes and but for an inspired performance from Adam Fairchild in the Saints goal, it could have been much worse for the Merseysiders. Saints had arrived in Shropshire as the form side in the table and were looking for a sixth consecutive league win. They had been scoring goals for fun but Danny Read had a very comfortable afternoon between the posts for Alport. Matty Ashbrook fired a second minute chance wide before Fairchild acrobatically turned over a Blundell header. Whitchurch were banging loudly at the door and Town escaped in a mad 60 seconds that might have produced THREE Alport goals. There was no way they could continue to ride their luck and when Stevie McNichol delivered an inch perfect cross from the left hand side, all Blundell had to do was direct the ball back from where it came and the Reds had a 20thminute lead. Soon after, they doubled it when Elliot Ledwards hit a fantastic pass into the left channel for Si Everall to chase down. Blundell was haring into the box and when the skipper found him, the striker finished exquisitely to bring up his 20th goal of the campaign. Everall isn’t that far behind him and when he lashed home a third he registered his 18th in a red jersey. Blundell was denied his hat-trick with Fairchild pushing away a trademark free-kick and the keeper made another fine stop to keep out an inventive Oli Jepson header. Saints would have been mightily relieved to have heard the half-time whistle as Alport’s fans warmly applauded their side off after a thrilling first half from their side.
By the time the teams came out the mist had started to roll around Yockings and at one point early in the second half the teams were taken off with the weather threatening to deny Whitchurch a vital three points. Another kind of mist descended when Ashbrook reacted to what appeared to be a stamp on the 18 year old winger. He grabbed the shirt of the defender menacingly and the referee showed a straight Red to the youngster – who will miss a minimum of three games following a second red of the season. Alport made the necessary changes to compensate for the loss of Ashbrook with 18 minutes to play, and they were more than happy to protect their lead with Saints very rarely a threat. Dean Twigg nearly made it four five minutes from time but the impeccable Fairchild made his umpteenth save of the afternoon to keep it at three as the Reds returned to the summit just in time for Christmas.