BILLINGE walked away from the Drivers Direct Stadium with and important three points as they beat title rivals Warrington Town Reserves 2-1 in what was an entertaining encounter.

As expected Warrington kept the ball well and moved it quickly but struggled to find a key to the door and found the back three of Chris Cottington, Gary Kenny and Dave Wright in fine form.

Even with the addition of first team player Steven Gillespie in the number 10 position the Yellows struggled to really test Jay Scott in the Billinge goal but it would be him who set up the opening goal after a Billinge mistake.

Jamie Anderson tried to play a ball back towards his own goal but it missed his target and Gillespie latched onto it. He ran at the back three and slipped a ball down the outside of Cottington to the on rushing Connor Speed who took a touch before hitting it goal wards.

The shot skimmed off the surface and Scott got a good hand on it but the power took it past the Billinge stopper and into the net.

As the half went on Billinge grew into the game and the partnership of Hewitt and Bowden were starting to cause a threat on the break and should have scored on a few occasions especially when Hewitt headed over from point blank range from a corner and when Richard Allen hit a near post shot right into the keeper clutches from two yards out.

Billinge came out the second half pumped with the belief that they would score against a Town defence that looked shaky under pressure and on 65 minutes they got their rewards.

After a great passage of play the ball found its way to Jamie Anderson in the box and he laid off to Hewitt who steered the ball past the Yellows keeper.

At 1 - 1 the momentum was with Billinge.

Billinge Manager Geoff Parr quickly changed his formation to a 4-2-3-1 and took off centre half Dave Wright and striker Hewitt and brought on wingers Elliot Bradshaw and Adam Clare.

The change would prove beneficial as shortly after the Storks made it 1-2.

Again a patient and quality build up led to the ball being in the box with Anderson and his shot would bounce out to full back Ryan McCabe who struck it on the half volley into the Town goal.

As the game got in the final stages both teams would have chances.

Bowden broke and skinned the Yellows defence before trying an audacious chip over the keeper that missed the mark and Town sub John Humphreys hit a lovely low shot that Jay Scott saved superbly.

The game finished at 2-1 and on reflection Billinge will fell they deserved it based on the number of clear cut chances they created. Again if they can cut out the goal creating mistakes games would be a lot more comfortable and with a new forward line that looks dangerous on every attack the second half of the season could be very promising indeed.

With 15 games down and 15 games to go it is safe to say that if Billinge are as good in the second half of the season as they were in the first then they won’t be far away in May.