As in the home fixture Roach proved stubborn opposition and put in a far more impressive performance than their league position suggests but Prestwich edged them out to bring their current unbeaten run to ten games.
A pudding of a pitch saw to it that the quality of football was below the side’s normal levels and the early exchanges were very scrappy with neither side really able to bring any cohesion to their play and possession was constantly swapping between the sides.
Roach were probably just shading it but without every really looking like scoring as Prestwich’s new look rear guard of keeper Mike Hudson, Andy Davies, Tom Gibson, Richard Steadman and Paul Taylor looked impenetrable.
Up front Prestwich offered the usual threat in the surging runs of Steve Murty and Mike Neary on the flanks but were struggling to make the ball stick in the final third for any length of time.
It all changed on 22 mins when another Murty burst past several players on the left saw him pick out Sean Haslam just to the left on the edge of the box, he rolled his man superbly and shot from a tight angle with enough power to make it too hot to handle for the keeper and David Prieto who’d made a great run from deep bundled it over the line.
Prestwich started to dominate and despite an awful stodgy playing surface managed to play some really neat passing football, Chris Hopkins and Kieran Comiskey got a grip of the central areas and released the front men at every opportunity.
The second came minutes later with an individual goal by Haslam who again rolled his man but a lot deeper this time and with a lot more to do, but his run on goal was finished off with an crisp finish low and hard into the corner.
A spell of complacency set in after the goal and Roach started to get to the ball first and come into the ascendency, there were a string of corners and crosses but Mike Hudson dealt comfortably with everything that came his way.
On 40 mins though a deep hit cross from the left for once saw Steadman and Taylor lose track of their men and a Roach striker was left with all the time and space in the world to power a great header past Hudson giving him no chance to make it 2-1 at the interval.
The second period was an ugly affair with a worsening pitch really affecting the quality of football, it proved a big leveller as although the balance of play was fairly even Roach offered an equal threat in spite of Prestwich clearly being the more accomplished football team.
Hudson and the back four were all excellent as Roach started to up the ante but as time wore on they started to run out of ideas and Prestwich should really have put the game to bed. Murty as usual was the source of countless counter attacks one of which saw Haslam inexplicably miss from a couple of yards with the goal at his mercy, Dave Thompson just couldn’t get the ball out of his feet in one goalmouth scramble and Murty himself headed over from a few yards out.
Despite a few scares Prestwich saw the game out to claim a deserved three points and keep their impressive run going. With a mouthwatering cup tie looming up against only once defeated premier division front runners Failsworth Dynamos that run is going to be severely tested.
