After a recent stutter Prestwich got back on track with their promotion/title bid in fine style, seeing off the hosts reasonably comfortably with a brace in each half.
The 3G surface certainly suited Prestwich’s quicker passing game and didn’t help Accrington who tend to be an old more physical but experienced side.
In the ascendency from the start it looked like a matter of time before Prestwich took the lead, but with two big powerful strikers Accrington certainly posed a threat and the unusual centre back pairing of Ross Salmon and Kieran Comiskey had to be on their toes throughout.
As has become the norm of late Prestwich were struggling to turn territorial dominance into goals as chances came and went, Sean Haslam blazed over from close range, whilst Steve Murty and David Prieto wasted their own good build up work with weak shots straight to the keeper.
Nonetheless the lads were playing some scintillating football, the midfield triumvirate of Martin Hill ,David Prieto, and Darren Buckley orchestrating from the base catching the eye in particular with the ball fizzing between them far too quickly for Accrington to react to.
Right back Pete Gallagher was providing a regular source of opportunities with some excellent deliveries from the right with nobody quite attacking the stream of deliveries with enough conviction.
Whilst Prestwich remained scoreless there was always that fear that Accrington would profit from a long ball belted up to their front men who were capable and strong enough of holding it up long enough for support to arrive and Prestwich had to survive several close calls of their own.
Prestwich finally took the lead on the half hour when another ball into the box by Gallagher was handled by a defender and Murty kept his cool with the penalty, the keeper getting a hand to it but fortunately there was enough power in the shot to take it into the net.
Just before half time a neat passing move between Haslam and Murty saw Prieto’s close range shot at the back post blocked but left back Chris Adams who had an excellent game was on hand to fire home. Accrington were rocking now and another 5 minutes would surely have brought more goals but the half time whistle blew soon after.
The 20 mins after the restart saw Prestwich play some of the finest football of the season swarming all over their ever retreating hosts, how Accrington avoided conceding another four or five goals in this spell nobody will ever know such was the volume of chances created, and with everyone seemingly intent on getting on to the score sheet
Mike Neary came close with a cracking 35 yard shot low and hard towards the right hand corner but it cannoned back off the post, and Haslam was desperately unlucky with what would have been the goal of the game after he brilliantly controlled another looping ball from Gallagher that dropped over his right shoulder before smashing it home, the far end linesman probably the only person at the ground that considered it to be offside.
A goal did come on 57 mins when a Prieto shot could only be parried and Murty reacted first to the rebound to sweep home his second.
Prestwich weren’t quit able to sustain the same levels of intensity and a bit of a lull followed, keeper Mike Hudson had to earn his corn with a few decent saves and one particularly good clean catch from a cross whilst under a lot of physical pressure.
A fourth did come, right on the death when Neary fed Dave Thompson on the edge of the box, he did really well to twist past his marker before smashing the ball high into the top corner.
It was a really good performance by the lads that went some way to restoring the feel good factor, just what was needed before this week’s mouth-watering clash with second placed Roach Dynamos.
