Oumar Camara continued his hot streak in front of goal with a second half winner as Avro opened 2022 with a hard-fought 2-1 win against a resilient Runcorn Town outfit at the Viridor Community Stadium.
There were five changes to the starting eleven from the victory against Northwich Victoria the previous Monday. Three of the back four remained unchanged, with Sam Rathbone replacing Lewis Lacy in the centre of defence, whilst Kyle Jacobs, Matty Wolfenden and Michael Afuye all returned in midfield, and Camara started up front.
After a fairly even opening ten minutes, the visitors went in front when Afuye latched onto a Kyle Harrop throw and crossed from the byline for Wolfenden to fire home his fourth goal for the club. The home side created very little in the first period, whilst the visitors could easily have extended their lead. Afuye was causing the Runcorn full back all sorts of problems, and came close to making it 2-0 when his powerful right foot effort was beaten away by Runcorn keeper Adam Reid. Callum Nicholas fired a trademark twenty yarder just over the bar, and Wolfenden was also close to doubling his tally for the afternoon with a header which Reid only just kept out.
Having failed to establish a commanding lead at the interval, there was always a danger that Avro would be pegged back, and so it proved just before the hour mark, when home midfielder Kyle Smith smashed home a brilliant equaliser from the edge of the box. New signing Djavan Pedro was immediately brought on and his pace created two good chances for the young striker to make an instant impression, but it was Camara who sealed the win for the second successive game when he powered home a header from Kane Wallwork’s inch perfect cross.
There were still twenty minutes remaining for the home side to get back on level terms again, and they might well have done so had it not been for a superb fingertip save by Josh Ollerenshaw to deny Tom Ruffer. There were a couple of other nervy moments right at the death, but ultimately Camara’s sixth goal in five games was enough to lift his side into fourth place in the NWCL Premier table.
