Whitchurch Alport sent their supporters home with an early Christmas present on Saturday afternoon, as they continued their recent fine home form at the Air2Root Stadium, and now 6 unbeaten at home, with a dogged 2-1 win over Northwich Victoria thanks to a goal in each half from Harry Bower and Tom Messham, the latter scoring what turned out to be a 92nd minute injury time winner. It was the change in luck the Reds have been gifted with in the past two home games, scoring injury time goals in successive home games that have turned into winning goals, which bucked the early season trend when their luck went the other way.

The game sprung into life as early as the 5th minute when Harry Bower opened the scoring, but it was left back Jacob Edwards who was instrumental in the goal, with a marauding run at the Vics defence, ghosting through like they weren't there, to play in Harry, who cut inside and made no mistake from 10 yards, firing past Adam Reid in the Vics goal.

Although the visitors were intent on playing a one dimensional long ball game, the Reds were lucky that the crossbar came to the rescue on 13 minutes, when Brad Sixsmith rattled the upright, with Jack Sheward beaten, but other than that the Reds defence controlled the game.

The game laboured towards the end of the half, so Manager Adam Shillcock made a double change at half time to bring on Lyndon Campbell and Ben Guest to increase the tempo of the game. These changes made the Reds stronger in midfield and allowed a more free flowing Alport side in the half. As the Reds were looking for a 2nd, they were hit with a sucker punch in the 70th minute, when the visitors with their first and only chance equalised through Marcus Perry, when he evaded the defence for the first and only time to fire low past Jack Sheward.

The last 10 minutes was the most stressful for the 171 crowd in attendance, as chances came and went begging for the Reds. Vics nearly hit the Reds with another sucker punch, hitting the woodwork for a 2nd time just before the 90 minute mark, but this stirred the Reds into life once more, and deep into injury time Tom Messham popped up to capitalise on a loose ball in the 6 yard box to fire home, and send the Reds supporters into wild celebrations.

Assistant Manager Sam Cartwright was full of praise for the effort of the Reds and also MOTM Freddie Bishton in his post match interview with the clubs media team. "The lads showed resilience today, and we deserved the win. We were clinical when we needed to be. The lads dealt with everything that was thrown at them. What we wanted to do when we arrived at the club was to bring some togetherness and we've embedded this over the past few months, and you can see this now on and off the pitch with the lads, and we want to continue that"

MOTM Freddie Bishton was also full of praise for his teammates." We all won our personal battles today, and that's why we won today, from the defence, midfield and the forwards, we were all class today.

The Reds have a Boxing Day Shropshire derby trip to Shifnal Town, followed by a return to the Air2Root stadium on Saturday 30th December, when they host Stone Old Alleynians #WeAreAlport