Trafford slipped down to fourth place in the NPL West Division following Saturday’s disastrous 6-0 defeat at Nantwich Town.
Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for Karl Marginson’s side as, in addition to letting in the six goals, they conceded three penalties, had two goals disallowed and saw full back Jerome Wright sent off.
Trafford conceded an early goal for the third successive game when, after just four minutes, a deep free kick from the left was headed home by the unmarked Paddy Kennedy.
Callum Saunders missed a golden opportunity of making it two shortly afterwards when he fired wide from just four yards before Trafford carelessly gave the ball away in the 18th minute and Kai Evans broke clear to round Ollie Culkin and roll the ball home.
Nathan Sandison and Kai Evans both had chances of increasing Town’s lead and in the 29th minute, after Jerome Wright had tripped substitute Gio Loureiro, Ollie Culkin brilliantly saved the resultant spot kick from Byron Harrison.
Five minutes later, and in a rare attack by the visitors, Brad Byrne struck a fierce low drive that was parried by Ben Garratt but when Isaac Noble netted the rebound, his ‘goal’ was ruled out for offside.
In the 40th minute Trafford’s frustrations were compounded by yet another contentious decision by the referee when he awarded a second penalty as Damola Sotona and Kai Evans appeared to go shoulder-to-shoulder and this time Harrison made no mistake when he fired the ball into the bottom corner to give a half-time score of 3-0.
Manager Marginson made a quadruple substitution at half-time but still the home team dominated with Kelvin Mellor crashing a 25 yard drive against the right hand upright.
In the 52nd minute man-of-the-match Kai Evans made it four when he rounded off another lightning fast break with a cool finish past the advancing Culkin and completed his hat-trick shortly afterwards when he combined with Nathan Sandison to net from a tight angle on the left.
Trafford refused to lie down and in the 67th minute Matty Lusakueno’s defence piercing low cross from the left was neatly turned in by Jordan Fagbola but once again the effort was ruled out for offside.
Five minutes later, things went from bad to worse for the visitors when Sean Higgins weak header was seized upon by Kai Evans who rounded keeper Culkin but was then pulled back by Jerome Wright. Wright was red carded and Byron Harrison stepped forward to stroke the ball home.
At 6-0, the game petered out to the final whistle although there was one piece of magic from Matty Lusakueno when he ghosted past three Town defenders and crossed to Hilal Khan who glanced his header wide.
Manager Marginson was left to reflect on a third defeat within a week but their superb start to the season means that they are still within striking distance of top spot and ironically they host league leaders Vauxhall Motors on Saturday at the Away Day Care Shawe View Stadium, kick off 3 p.m.
(Picture credit: Nantwich Town FC's website)