Cheadle Town 1-0 Chadderton

For the six-nil battering at Alsager, the 1-1 draw against Blackpool Mechs where we dominated the game, the energy-sapping 2-4 defeat to Stalybridge Celtic, the 0-1 FA Vase loss at Padiham, the sickening last-kick defeat at Winsford United and trying not to dish out a kicking to a Winsford kid who was in my face all afternoon, wondering why it took over an hour to travel 30-odd miles to Leek and then watch a 0-2 defeat, the 0-2 at home to Norton where the team just "didn't turn up", being threatened to be thrown out of the ground by a referee at Holker, seeing a game go tits-up after having the lead at Castleton, missing our first away point at Bootle, missing Heathy's 40-yarder and only getting the last 20 minutes of the Runcorn home match because of the traffic.....the redemption cometh.

And the fact that it came with only five minutes remaining made the victory all that sweeter; Arron Riley's net-bound swivel-and-shot in the box was met with relief not seen at Park Road for a long time, I can bet. Myself, Polardin and Ian "Sweeney Todd" ended up jumping all over each other as if Cheadle had just won the European Cup. It meant that much.

As is so often in football, "if it weren't for such-and-such", the result could have been so different. Tonight's such-and-such was Peter Mellor, who made a superb strong-handed save on 43 minutes and then a remarkable double-save on 50 minutes to keep Chadderton out.

Cheadle had their chances, though. Scott Flanagan saw a shot skid past the post on 11 minutes, Deano had a turn-and-shot saved on 20 minutes and then five minutes later, Matt Smith saw a looping header agonisingly creep past the post. With 79 minutes gone, it was one of those "it's not going to be one of those nights is it?" moments as Deano, on a one-on-one with the 'keeper, poked his shot wide of the net. Six minutes later and Arron Riley made sure it was all forgotten.

On the balance of play, Cheadle Town deserved to shade this one; then again, I'm bound to say that, aren't I? Ian "Sweeney Todd' proved to be our lucky home mascot again - he's never seen Cheadle lose at Park Road! Credit to Chadderton who played their part in a very entertaining (end-to-end at times) game.

Never, ever has the post-match pint in the Fletcher Moss in Didsbury tasted so good. The (almost) three-month hoodoo has packed its bags and gone....

Pictures: because it was a night match, I didn't take many, but if you want to see the "University Professor" of a linesman we had tonight, click here and make your way through the pics by using the boxes underneath where it says 'Nine Below Zero' photostream. More of Mr Professor in a later post......

TEAM: Mellor, Heath, B Roberts, McDonagh, A Roberts, Smith, A Riley, Brockenhurst (McDonald), Flanagan (Stewart), D Martin, Lindon Subs: McDonald, Stewart, Street