RAMSBOTTOM will want to forget their first-ever visit to Winsford's Barton Stadium.

Already without four players due to suspensions, the non-appearance of Mike Langhorn was a major blow. Having survived an early scare when Stephen Sheil cleared off the line, the Rams fell a goal behind on eight minutes.

Winsford won a corner on the right, the ball was played back to full back Glen Attuquayefio who crossed into the danger area where big defender Peter Crane jumped unchallenged to head past Paul Horridge.

At the midway point of the first half Ramsbottom struggled to make any impression on the home defence and Horridge needed to make a good reaction save to prevent a second Winsford goal.

A spell of Ramsbottom pressure almost brought an equaliser when Steve Orrell played the ball into the six-yard box but a Winsford defender cleared from under his own crossbar.

With half time just seconds away, the Cheshire side should have doubled their lead but Steve O'Shaughnessy fired wide of the target after rounding Horridge.

On 55 minutes the Rams had a rare strike on goal but David Yorke-Robinson's shot was straight at Matthew Conkie.

Ramsbottom never really got to grips with the heavy pitch and blustery conditions as they constantly made one pass too many and failed to produce any telling crosses.

On 58 minutes they put together an excellent four-man move that provided their best opportunity of the game, but Simon Woodford's hurried strike finished well wide of the Winsford goal.

With just half an hour remaining, Adam Beasley's speculative shot struck the Ramsbottom crossbar and Les Miranda scored from the rebound to put Winsford two goals in front.

The final 30 minutes were played out with the home side happy to sit on their two-goal lead and take some revenge for the 6-0 hammering they suffered at the Riverside earlier in the season.

WINSFORD UTD...2 RAMSBOTTOM UTD...0