Brewers held by 10-man Trafford
Visiting defender Paul Linwood was shown a straight red card for deliberate handball on 43 minutes before Conor Sellars moved the Brewers ahead at the start of the second half, only for Kingsley Williams to arrive from the bench and earn the Mancunians a share of the spoils.
In a fairly uneventful opening to the Evo-Stik Division One North encounter, the closest that either side came to a goal was when Sellars curled a 36th-minute free-kick around the Trafford wall, only to see the ball crash of the face of the post.
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Hide AdJust a few minutes later, Sellars drove low and hard towards the bottom corner, but visiting stopper Grant Shenton was equal to the strike.
Linwood was then given his marching orders two minutes from the break when a ball in behind looked like it would be comfortably dealt with by the defender, but as it popped up, it struck his hand.
With Linwood the last man and Josh Greening bearing down on him, referee Michael Herzog saw fit to produce a red card, much to Trafford’s dismay.
There were no goals before the interval, but Taddy made a breakthrough just six minutes into the second half.
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Hide AdGreening was bundled over in the box by Louis Corrigan and Mr Herzog pointed to the spot, allowing Sellars to step up and confidently send Shenton the wrong way from 12 yards.
Michael Morton’s side almost doubled their lead half-way through the second 45, and in fine fashion.
Sellars fired the ball into Greening, he flicked first time to Cameron Murray who slid Lawrance Hunter in down the left, the latter seeing a low, fizzing strike deflected onto the woodwork.
In the 72nd minute, the Brewers passed up on probably their best chance to further their lead.
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Hide AdTom Corner played in Greening down the right-hand side and he then returned the favour, pulling back to Albion’s top-scorer whose fierce side-foot was brilliantly tipped over by Shenton.
This missed chance was made to look costly three minutes later as the 10 men of Trafford equalised.
Mark Derbyshire’s shot ricocheted fortunately for substitute Williams who rifled into the roof of the net from 12 yards out.
The home side were however quick to re-group and galvanise themselves as they tried to grab the lead back.
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Hide AdCorey Roper had two bites of the cherry a couple minutes later when Greening’s free-kick was flicked down by Corner.
Roper’s initial effort was kept out by Shenton and he then volleyed his second attempt over the mark from close range.
Less than 60 seconds later, another good opportunity was squandered by Taddy.
Roper did well to shift out to Murray on the left who drove into the penalty area before finding Corner who could only poke agonisingly wide.
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Hide AdChris Howarth then tried to outfox Shenton, but the Trafford stopper read the full-back’s effort from a tight angle.
The final chance of the contest fell to the away side as Aaron Burns’ cross down the corridor of uncertainty went right across the face untouched and the spoils were shared.