Wigan Robin Park are flying the flag for the North West Counties League in the semi-final of the Lancashire FA Co-Operative Challenge Trophy after a magnificent 4-2 victory at high-flying Evo-Stik Division One North side Lancaster City on Tuesday night.
Two goals from Phil Howard along with one each from Ash Rimmer and Shaun Judge were enough to see off a full strength City side that operate at two steps above the Robins in the football pyramid.
On a blustery night the Robins were first out the blocks when Phil Howard latched onto a through ball to fire home from the edge of the box with just four minutes of the clock.
Wigan continued to press as Ash Rimmer, Dean Callaway and Lee Harrison caused all sorts of problems for the Dolly Blues' defence.
However the pressure failed to produce any more goals and City found themselves level on 18 minutes when Danny Hattersley pounced on some defence uncertainty to slam home from six yards.
If the home side thought they were now right back in the game they were wrong, as straight from the kick-off Judge threaded a beautiful ball through to Rimmer who finished sublimely from eighteen yards, restoring the Robins lead.
With the Robins centre-midfield of Judge and Ben Kay dominated matters, it looked like they would increase their lead and Phil Howard should have done better when he was clean through, but City keeper Martin Fearon saved well at his feet as he hesitated in front of goal.
After the break, the home side had the stiff breeze on their backs and within two minutes Dave Swarbrick found himself in space and beat Jay Foulds in the Robins' goal to make it two apiece.
Lancaster threatened to take hold of the game, but the Wigan defence remained resolute with Mike Wood and Andrew Mawdesley having their best games of the season.
City tended to hit long sweeping cross-field balls, but Adam Howard dealt with everything that was thrown at him at left back.
The Robins endured a shaky fifteen minutes, but by the hour mark they had got their passing game going and the introduction of Michael Sykes on 62 minutes saw them take control.
On 69 minutes Fearon pulled off a magnificent save to deny Phil Howard, but from the resulting corner Judge met Rimmer's cross and planted a bullet header into the corner of the net to make it 3-2 to the visitors.
The Dolly Blues threw everybody forward but failed to test Foulds and after 75 minutes Kay put Phil Howard through with a marvellous thirty yard pass.
Howard shrugged off his defender to finish superbly from an acute angle to give Park a two-goal advantage.
The home side pressed but were unable to test the Robins' defence who held out for a truly remarkable victory.
Manager John Neafcy was a delighted man after the game: I thought we were terrific and you would never have known we are two divisions below Lancaster.
We matched them all over the pitch and our forwards caused them problems all night.
It really is a magnificent achievement for a cub at our level to get to the semi-final of such a prestigious trophy and we'll look forward to the draw this Friday.”
The Robins now join Evo-Stik Premier Division sides Chorley and Kendal Town in the draw, along with the winners of the outstanding tie between Blue Square Conference side Barrow and Evo-Stik Division One North side Radcliffe Borough.
Andy Vaughan
The picture below shows Phil Howard turning away after scoring his second and the Robins' fourth goal. Photo courtesy of Marc Taylor.
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