Town end winless run with victory at Dunstable

STRATFORD Town returned to winning ways at a wet and windy Creasey Park with a hard-fought 3-2 success against a spirited Dunstable side who seldom looked like a bottom of the table team, writes Bryan Hale.

Town were soon on the attack and in only the fourth minute as Mike Taylor had a header clawed away at full stretch by keeper Will Hunt.

Dunstable responded almost immediately, with Ty Ward hitting a low drive against the foot of Stratford keeper Louis Connor’s right-hand post.

Taylor though had better luck on nine minutes when he gave Stratford the lead with a bullet header from Will Grocott’s left wing corner.

Dunstable had the chance of an equaliser five minutes later when a slip by Loyiso Recci allowed the speedy Andrew Osei-Bonsu to race away down the inside left channel, but Connor was smartly off his line to make a vital block.

Stratford continued to boss the possession, but they couldn’t add to their lead and instead it was Dunstable who were again denied by the woodwork five minutes before the interval when Arel Amu rattled the bar with a fiercely-struck 25-yard free-kick.

Recci kept Stratford’s lead intact with a goal line clearance immediately after the restart before Stratford went 2-0 up when Taylor met Dan Summerfield’s cross with a thunderous volley, which rocketed into the roof of the net past the helpless Hunt.

To their credit, Dunstable kept going and on 61 minutes Stratford couldn’t deal properly with a corner with the loose ball reaching Kieran Ogden all of 30 yards out and he lashed an unstoppable right footer into the top corner.

Stratford thought that they had wrapped up the points with a quarter of an hour to go when from another Grocott corner Recci’s header was blocked and Liam Francis stabbed home the rebound from close range.

But they had a nervy last few seconds when Amu fired in Dunstable’s second in the 90 minute followed by Osei-Bonsu shooting narrowly wide deep into added time.