| Match Details: Saturday 4th May 2019 Play-Off Final
Attendance: 2337 South Shields: Connell, Baxter, Lough (Foley), Shaw, Morse, Turnbull, Daly, Briggs, Finnigan (Harmison), Mason (Lowe), Gillies.Unused subs: Brown, Callaghan. Warrington Town: Tony McMillan, Shaun Beeley, Alex Whittle, Ben Garrity, Mark Roberts, David Raven, Bohan Dixon (Josh Amis), Robbie Evans, Tony Gray, Jack Dunn (Dylan Vassallo), Jack Mackreth (Russell Benjamin). Subs not used: Marcus Cusani, Mitch Duggan. WARRINGTON Town are one game from promotion to National League North after winning their play-off final 2-1 at South Shields. Josh Amis fired home the winner three minutes from time to complete the turnaround and crown the Yellows Northern Premier League play-off champions with their third victory over the north east side this season. They had trailed at the break to Josh Gillies fine first half strike, but the introduction of Amis, who has missed several weeks through injury, sparked a turnaround that started with Dylan Vassallo’s equaliser on 67 minutes. The Yellows started strongly and carved out a chance in the opening two minutes, Tony Gray and Bohan Dixon linking up to release Jack Mackreth down the right and his low ball was steered over the bar by Jack Dunn. South Shields were struggling to play their usual style out from the back under a high press from the Yellows, who got through the first quarter of an hour as the dominant side. That settled Shields, who finished three points ahead of the Yellows in the final league table, and they took their 1-0 lead in to half time. In front of a crowd of 2,337 at Mariners Park, Warrington came out at the start of the second half looking for an equaliser and the excellent Mackreth perhaps could have got more when he got to the byline twice and just couldn’t find Gray with a pull back. The introduction of Nathan Lowe off the bench gave Shields some impetus, and he nearly scored with his very first touch. A slip by Shaun Beeley gifted possession and Carl Finnigan was slid through, denied by the legs of Tony McMillan, with the rebound falling for Lowe who struck it goalwards only to see it cleared off the line by Dave Raven. There wasn’t going to be many chances to score and Warrington made sure they took their next one on 66 minutes. Mackreth scampered down the right hand side and got a good cross in, Amis managed to get a flick to it and then Vassallo fired it home on the half-volley. The visitors were enjoying a strong spell in the game and South Shields were struggling to respond. They chucked on big forward Ben Harmison with seven minutes to go, but the imperious Mark Roberts and Raven had any Shields attacks snuffed out. Extra time looked inevitable until the 87th minute, hard-working Mackreth winning a free-kick close to the touchline and the ball was delivered by Vassallo, kept alive by Ben Garrity and Amis swivelled to shoot home left-footed and silence the home crowd. A Shields siege was expected, but it never came, Warrington had broken them. They did think they had nabbed what perhaps would have been an unjust equaliser in the third minute of added on time, Daly’s shot going in to the side-netting in a way that half the crowd celebrated a goal. Warrington held on, and were presented with the play-off trophy which in a normal season would be enough for promotion – but due to the re-structuring of the leagues, the Yellows must do it again next Saturday against the winner of Monday’s Central League play-off final to secure promotion to tier six of the English football pyramid. | ||||||
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