SAFE to say Ben Harrison was a much happier manager on Saturday than he was last Tuesday.

His Witton Albion side’s performances were poles apart, going from a woeful showing in a 3-0 home loss to Runcorn Linnets in the Cheshire Senior Cup to despatching Congleton Town 5-2 in Northern Premier League West.

Having played some good football without getting the results prior to the Linnets disappointment, the frustration was evident in Harrison’s strong criticism in midweek.

While acknowledging that one win does not mean getting carried away, he was all smiles for the display produced by his players against Congleton.

“We were fantastic in the first half,” said Harrison after Albion’s first league win since August 26, aided by a hat-trick from Reece Daly on a day when Isaac Graham made his debut in midfield.

(Image: Karl Brooks Photography)

“We’ve spoken about that we think everything’s going to click and we’re going to take a game away from someone, and we did in the first half.

“They couldn’t live with Mama (Djabi) and Wealth (Dasilva), they were bullies, running in behind, creating chances.

“And then we had Reece with his quality and his finishing. And we looked solid. We picked up a lot of the second balls.

“Isaac trained with us Thursday and he put a great shift in, especially in the first half.

“At half time we said go out and weather the early storm…then we conceded two goals.

“But credit to the lads, because Congleton are a good side and they have been for three or four years now, they’ve got a way of playing that’s effective. We could have gone under at 3-2 but we didn’t.

“We put balls in the box, we picked up second balls, we got a bit of luck and then we showed a classic end to score another two goals.

“Everyone played their part, there wasn’t one person who shirked from anything.

“I’m delighted. For the want of not sounding like a broken record, this is what we thought was about to come and I’m just made up for the lads that it has.

“This puts us in a decent position to just kick on from here.

“Tuesday night we’re away to Newcastle Town who have had a decent start, they’re a good side.

“We won’t get carried away with one win, we hadn’t won in five in the league, but we’ll look forward to Tuesday and go again.”