The hosts chose to kick down the slope in the first half, and came close on 17 minutes when Chris Thompson was relieved to see a speculative 40 yard effort from Lee Duckworth clear the crossbar.

Eight minutes later Nelson's Luke Hargreaves lofted a great ball to send Lance Ogunyode clear, but keeper Gary Goodwin bravely cleared at his feet.

Two minutes later Simon Everall smartly cut inside from the left and forced a low save by Thompson.

Soon after Nelson came even closer, with Darren Wright playing in Ogunyode down the right, the striker's low angled shot coming back off the far post.

Winsford created the first chance of the second period, as Adam Bayley found the roof of net after getting his head to a corner, but it was Nelson who grabbed the vital opener on 58 minutes.

There looked to be little danger as Ogunyode collected the ball 40 yards out, but he waltzed through the defence and blasted a firm low shot into the bottom left hand corner from the edge of the area.

Midway through the half the home side sent on Steve McNichol, and the visitors enjoyed their best spell as they searched for an equaliser.


And when they did find a way through, they found Thompson in their way.

The Blues keeper pulled off a brilliant reflex save to deny McNichol's snap shot on 71 minutes, and four minutes later spread himself well to block Nathan Southern's goalbound shot.

Nelson superbly weathered the storm though, and finished strongly. With three minutes left Ogunyode crossed from the right, and Hargreaves cut back inside before forcing Goodwin into a flying save from a rasping right foot shot.

But as the game moved into injury time, Lance fed Andy Smith in wide down the left, and he turned Goodwin before laying off to Ashley Higgins, who placed a drive beyond two defenders on the line and into the top right hand corner.

It was game over, and, while Winsford had played their part, no-one could deny Nelson their reward following what had undoubtedly been a top drawer performance from the entire team.