A DISAPPOINTING afternoon at the vanEupen Arena saw a poor Motors defeated by a Congleton side with a touch more fight.

The Motors controlled a lot of the ball in the first five minutes, but the first major chance fell the visitors way as Max McCarthy leeched onto a pass back that was too short from Toby Jones and put his effort through Jack Atkinson's legs but it only managed to hit the side netting.

The game saw an early change as player manager Richard Duffy pulled himself off through injury and was replaced by Darren Chadwick.

Motors were the cause of their own problems giving away another huge change as Vita Mbolokele was caught in possession deep in his own half resulting in a 2 on 1 in favour of the Bears. Credit to him however he recovered to make up ground and get his body in the way of a shot from close range.

After 25 minutes a free kick in an extremely dangerous area on the left flank gave Motors their first shot on target with a header sent back across goal but Ben Dufton-Kelly’s effort was incredibly tame.

The opener was again a result of Motors' mistakes with a foul given on George Nugent as he clipped a Congleton attacker mid-slip. The free kick was on the left corner of the area and Max McCarthy absolutely slammed it into the top corner with nothing Atkinson could have done to prevent it. 

A mistake from David Patron almost resulted in the equaliser as his attempt to clear a back pass was blocked by Connor Rankin but he couldn’t direct it goal ward.

There would be no wait for a goal in the second half however as an early run down the right flank resulted in a ball dragged across the box for an arriving McCarthy to double his tally for the day.

As he looked for a way back into the game with half an hour to go Danny Holmes confirmed his last substitution with five attacking changes made chasing the two-goal deficit.

It would almost cost him dearly as once again the Motors back line was caught out by McCarthy, who, hunting his hat-trick, steamed toward the goal and unleashed a powerful strike that was only a danger to the post with the woodwork denying a third.

Some superb play from Jaward Jebrin halved the difference when the winger brought the ball down on the left and then used his other foot to flick it past Marco Fregapane and free up the entire left flank to explore. As he attacked the box, a low ball across goal evaded Ben Holmes but fell into the path of Kevin Ellison who stroked in at the far post to make it 1-2. 

Any hope of an equaliser however was extinguished when a corner was sent deep to the back post for McCarthy to head it back across goal where it was turned in by Ethan Hartshorn.

It spelt for a quiet last 15 with neither side making any meaningful effort on either goal resulting in a disappointing 3-1 defeat in the Motors third game of the season