Ten-man Trafford stunned high flying Nantwich Town with a magnificent 2-1 victory at the Away Day Care Shawe View Stadium on Saturday.
The visitors, fourth in the division prior to the game, edged the opening stages with full back James Melhado making several breaks down the right flank but seeing his low crosses come to nothing.
Rio Clegg scuffed a shot wide from 10 yards as Trafford grew in confidence and in the 24th minute Clegg’s drive from 25 yards was comfortably held by Ben Garratt.
A snapshot from 20 yards by Byron Harrison was parried by home keeper Sam Booth and then Town striker Alex Panter fired well over from a good position.
A rather scrappy and defence dominated half of football came to a close with Rio Clegg blasting over and then wriggling past three defenders before tamely shooting at Garratt.
Trafford started brightly in the second half and took the lead in the 52nd minute in quite spectacular fashion, Ryley Smith striking a brilliant overhead kick from 10 yards that flew into the top corner.
Three minutes later, however, Town were back on level terms when Trafford failed to clear a free kick from the left and Alex Panter pounced to crack an unstoppable drive past Sam Booth.
Both teams pushed forward in search of further goals and Trafford were fortunate to survive in the 64th minute when a poor clearance by Jerome Wright fell to Kai Evans who screwed his shot wide with just Booth to beat.
Trafford manager Karl Marginson introduced substitutes Cian Donohue and Hilal Khan into the action and within a minute Jerome Wright almost broke the deadlock only for Joseph Bunney to clear his goal-bound shot off the line.
Brad Byrne flashed a low drive from 25 yards just wide but disaster struck for the hosts in the 77th minute when Ryley Smith appeared to kick out at a Town defender following a late challenge from behind and was immediately shown a red card.
Trafford’s ten men were magnificent in the face of adversity with the back four of Sean Higgins, Harry Norris, Jordan Fagbola and Jerome Wright all outstanding and in the 86th minute they were rewarded for their adventurous approach when a neat move down the left involving debutant Kevin Spinelli and Hilal Khan ended with the latter seeing his shot blocked and Cian Donohue reacting first to volley gleefully past Garratt from ten yards.
The remaining minutes saw Marginson’s men showing superb game management with Sam Booth relatively untroubled and this victory now moves Trafford into 11th place in the NPL West Division, just five points outside the play-off zone.