Kirkham & Wesham 0, New Mills 4

9:57am Monday 17th March 2008

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A RECORD league crowd came to Kellamergh Park on Saturday to hail their FA Vase heroes - but most went home disappointed as Kirkham & Wesham turned in their poorest performance of the season against league leaders New Mills with acting manager Colin Methven far from happy.

He said: "All l really want to say about this performance is that it has to act as a wake up call to some of the players.

"New Mills wanted it more than we did today and that showed.

"Without doubt it's the worst performance l can ever remember from a Kirkham side - certainly in my time at the club.

"I think this Wembley run is getting to the lads now and they really need to concentrate on what is most important - and that's the league.

"The league is the bread and butter and the cup games are a bonus.

"We have to be more professional than we showed today and bounce back from this quickly - very quickly."

It was clear from the early exchanges that the Derbyshire top of the table pacesetters were in no mood to give away ground to their closest rivals and it was no surprise when they took the lead after 26 minutes when the tricky Carlos Meakin cut in from the right to hammer the first nail into the Kirkham coffin.

Mind you, at the other end it looked as if Michael Horsfall had stroked in the opener for Kirkham six minutes earlier but his tame shot clipped a post and stayed out.

But that said New Mills hit the post at the other end as early as the third minute and it was Meakin who again looked a threat when his shot came back into play off the woodwork.

But the game arguably turned on a mistake in defence by Kirkham skipper Dougie Shaw after 35 minutes and in his haste to retrieve the situation and deemed the last man in defence he pulled down New Mills Kenny Mayers and was promptly shown the red card by referee Gary Clews of Stoke-on-Trent.

From here in the game was an uphill struggle for the previously unbeaten at home Kirkham side.

Their play was scrappy, and the day got worse after 53 minutes when Mel Knight got a fortunate ricochet off keeper Pete Summerfield to head into an empty net and three minutes later he made it three for his side, firing low into the bottom corner.

By this time the visitors were in cruise control and looking for more, and got more, when midfield man Joe Shaw curled in a free-kick through a bunch of players on the line.

Mike Clark found some space to get a shot in for the home side on 65 minutes but only scuffed the chance and six minutes from time even leading scorer Sean Paterson could do no more than fire high and over when given space by sub Matt Walwyn to at least grab some crumb of comfort for Kirkham.

With manager Mick Fuller 300 miles away watching next Saturday's FA Vase semi-final opponents Needham Market, who incidently fared no better themselves losing 5-2 at home to lowly Swaffham Town in a Rigeons Eastern Division League game on their own park, acting boss Colin Methven added: "We missed Phil Thompson and Paul Eastwood in defence, with Thommo failing a late fitness test on an injured knee.

"But it just wasn't one player - the team just wasn't at the races today."

A delighted Millers boss Tony Hancock added: "I think anyone who was here today will say that we were the better side.

"We came to do a job and promotion is everything to us.

"Kirkham have two cup competitions to play for and we are all behind them in their efforts to get to Wembley in the Vase, but we wanted this today and I'm pleased with the way we went about things.

"We knew how good Kirkham were but we just had to come here and do a job."

New Mills have now gone 15 points clear at the top of the table but Kirkham's saving grace is that they do have five games in hand, but will likely have to go into three of them now without their influential skipper Shaw, who will serve his ban early in April but looks likely not to miss the Vase semi-finals legs home and away.

New Mills scorers: Meakin 26, Knight, 53 and 56, Shaw 60.