In their third pre-season friendly Swinton’s Beechfield United ran rampant in a nine-goal thriller over Grappenhall Sports.
But against their Cheshire opponents Beechfield were guilty of being slow off the starting blocks, going two down after just 10 minutes.
Shellshocked, the Salford side started to grind out a foothold in the game and in a swift counter-attack Dave Leach collected a superb angled pass from Brad Sixsmith and side footed the ball past the advancing keeper.
Leach scored a second to see Beechfield draw level when a pin-point long pass by Mike Rogerson found Craig Massey, whose thunderous drive was saved by the keeper but rebounded to striker Leach who had an easy finish.
Grappenhall’s defenders faced wave after wave of attacks by United and another slick move ended when Brad Sixsmith scored at the second attempt to put Beechy 3-2 up.
On 34 minutes Beechy added a fourth when Craig Massey’s accurate corner saw Steve Erskine tip the ball back to Jamie Sinnott who hammered it into the net through a crowded penalty area.
As the second half developed Grappenhall enjoyed another period of fast counter-attacking soccer but with Chris Ferris, Rob Lockley and Brad Sixsmith dominating the midfield United always looked capable of scoring more goals.
Ferris started the move for Beechfield’s fifth, which saw Craig Massey’s inch-perfect cross met by Dave Leach and United’s No9 celebrated his hat-trick.
United’s one-touch quick passing moves were a joy to watch and moving forward out of defence was Andrzej Browne whose perfectly weighted pass sent Jamie Sinnott racing clear of his marker to neatly chipp the ball over the keeper.
In the final minute the visitors created one final attack and the Grappenhall No10 was on target from close range to complete the scoring.
