Stone Dominoes 3 Kirkham & Wesham 4

Leading scorer Sean Paterson tapped in an early opener for the visitors, his 28th of the season after two minutes when Ritchie Allen on the left carved open the home defence.

But Stone should have equalised two minutes later when ex-Nantwich Town striker Stuart Scheuber missed an easy header in front of an open goal following a telling cross from Mike Meszaros.

And it was Scheuber, an FA Vase winner with the Cheshire club two seasons ago who again caused Kirkham all sorts of problems after 13 minutes when he brought a full length save out of Kirkham keeper Joe Abbott.

But Kirkham weathered a tricky spell to add to their lead four minutes from the break when Matt Walwyn chipped in number two, and when Ritchie Allen picked up the ball on half-way three minutes into the second period and dragged the ball past three defenders before drawing Stone keeper James Hall off his line to clip into an empty net far side with his effort arguably a contender for goal of the season, Kirkham were in dream land and cruising to victory.

Or so we thought.Within six minutes near the hour mark Stone's James Curley got in amongst the Kirkham back line to cause havoc, grabbed two quick goals to pull the game back into a contest for the home side.

Kirkham boss Mick Fuller rang the changes, brought on Phil Blackwell and the sub sank Stone's chances of a point with a powerful header after 86 minutes following some excellent work on the flank from James Sheppard.

But Stone grabbed a shaker a minute from time when skipper Mike Byrne ghosted in at the far post from a Andy Matthews corner to nod in their third and it proved a tense last few minutes for the already promoted visitors.

Boss Fuller added later: "We played some decent stuff at times early on and l was pleased with that.

"But some of our defending in the second half was woeful and l made a few changes to stop the rot.

"Thankfully it worked."