Nantwich Town were well beaten 4-2 away at Stalybridge Celtic as their play-off hopes were damaged once more.
Joe Robbins and Kofi Moore started for the Dabbers after good performances off the bench in the win at Wythenshawe Town last weekend.
The hosts scored in the first three minutes when miscommunication at the back meant Jack Irlam had a simple task to slot in the opening goal.
Nantwich settled relatively well after that setback and had a couple of half shots and corners.
But just after 20 minutes the home side doubled their lead.
A floated corner was headed into the top corner by Lewis Raswthorn who was given far too much space.
Rawsthorn then had a header pushed over by Ben Garratt soon after, which was arguably easier to score than the one he did net.
Kelvin Mellor then headed over his own crossbar as Celtic threatened again.
Joe Duckworth did get the ball in the net but was flagged offside.
Finally the Dabbers were able to create a chance and it came on the counter. Kai Evans squared to Tom Pratt who sliced his shot wide.
The hosts nearly scored again when Duckworth brought a good save from Garratt before also holding the rebound.
Nantwich, against any sort of run of play, pulled a goal back on 36 minutes.
A looping free kick by Matty Tweedley dropped for Moore to poke in his fourth goal of the season.
Stalybridge soon reasserted their dominance, however.
A header was flicked wide from a corner that Nantwich could not deal with again. A big scramble in the box saw the ball somehow not forced in with a cross just after fired into the side netting.
The Dabbers held on to the break and trailed only 2-1. But it didn’t take long in the second period for that to change.
Ben Hockenhull was booked for a late challenge, leading to a free kick in the range of their captain Liam Tongue.
He let fly and an unfortunate bounce in the sand-ridden six-yard box took it over the diving Garratt to make it 3-1.
Three minutes after that it was 4-1.
Rawsthorn once again was played in too easily and Garratt denied him initially.
But a dallying Hockenhull was tackled and the ball went straight back to Rawsthorn to tuck away his second of the game.
The hosts took their foot off the gas and on 74 minutes Nantwich pulled a consolation goal back.
Byron Harrison got to the byline and pulled it back to Tweedley whose strike cannoned off the crossbar.
It dropped to Perry Bircumshaw who fired in the rebound for his first league goal for Nantwich in almost two years.
Brandon Newell forced Garratt into one of a couple of saves inside the last 10 minutes as Stalybridge tried to extend the lead again.
The two big positives for Nantwich were not really related to the game.
Joel Connolly came on in the last 10 minutes for his first appearance since November, and after having had food poisoning on Friday night into the Saturday.
Then, in stoppage time was another return after a much longer wait.
Stevie Hewitt badly injured his knee in the FA Trophy win over York City in December 2023.
He had to get a second opinion to confirm the injury and then partially fundraise towards the cost of the surgery.
After all of that and the subsequent rehab he was back after 462 days.
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