On a calm autumn night, Willington got proceedings underway by going straight on the attack and forcing a corner that was easily defended. There were 3 changes to the Stan team from Saturday’s draw. A free kick, taken by Lee Johnson on 7 minutes, came to nothing and was quickly followed by Ben Telford being brought down by Willington’s William Preston who was fortunate not to be booked. On 10 minutes, a Jonathan Wright free kick flashed across the away team’s box without a Stan player being able to get a foot to it.

The Stan were begining to press more and in the space of 5 minutes Sawyer, in the Willington goal, parried 2 Telford shots over the bar. Willington however, were as industrious as ever and after Sawyer saved with his legs from Adam Rowntree, the ball was straight up to the other end and a frantic scramble in front of the Stan goal resulted in the ball crashing against the underside of the crossbar.

It was now end to end stuff with Stan keeper Martin saving well from Willington’s Corey Nicholson. Lewis Burns found the net as the first half closed only to be ruled offside. On a day when ‘Back To The Future’ was in the news, you would need to fire up the flux capacitor and put the De Lorean clock back a long way to find a 0-0 draw at the Stan.

And so the second half got under way ,in front of another good crowd, without a goal. With 4 minutes gone, Jonathan Wright broke the deadlock. On a lateral run, 20 yards out, he fired a low shot past the Willington keeper.

The Stan doubled their advantage 10 minutes later when Lewis Burns slid in to knock the ball home from a free kick engineered by Jon Jon and Lee Johnson.

Substitutions followed with Rowntree and Burns being replaced by new signing Chris Carrasquillo and Gary Yates. A booking for Willington’s Nicholson was followed by him being substituted and Connor Race coming on.

The game became a little bit tetchy with bookings for the Stan’s Karl Morrison and Willington’s Michael Bell. Willington never gave up and continued to push forward to the final whistle. A welcome 3 points for the Stan and mission accomplished.

Stan Team: Martin; Stoddart; Morrison; Wear; Scott, P; Bailey; Telford; Johnson, L; Wright; Rowntree (Yates); Burns (Carrasquillo).

Unused Subs: Dixon,G; Imray.

Goals: Wright 49, Burns 59

Yellow Cards: Morrison.

Attendance: 144

Gordon Wilson