Wheels come off for Vauxhall

Two goals in the last eight minutes put paid to the FA Cup third-round dreams of Vauxhall Motors at Macclesfield's Moss Rose ground last night.

The Unibond League side, who evolved from the works team at the car company's Ellesmere Port plant, will have to be content with the scalp of Queens Park Rangers, their second-round victims, as their giant-killing victims for this year.

Alvin McDonald's team gave their Third Division opponents some worrying moments but could not find the breakthrough. In the end, the League team's superior fitness told, as Kyle Lightbourne and Matthew Tipton scored the decisive goals.

It was Motors' seventh match in the competition, but Cup heroics apart, theirs is a remarkable story. Formed only 39 years ago, they have progressed by leaps and bounds in recent years, particularly since McDonald became manager in 1998. In the five years since, they have been promoted three times and have enough games in hand in the Unibond Premier to mount a realistic attempt at moving up another rung to the Conference.

Macclesfield, struggling to stay out of trouble in the Third Division, found themselves in a reversed role from last season, when the television cameras were at Moss Rose for their third-round tie against West Ham. Underdogs then, they were nervous favourites last night as Motors forced them into errors. Macclesfield were inclined towards panic at the back and adopted a risky strategy in playing for offsides.

Manager David Moss's insistence that they should approach the task with confid- ence seemed to have cut little ice as Motors' strikers Nicky Young and Terry Fearns took it in turns to pose them problems.

Even so, Macclesfield had the best chance of the first half after only five minutes when Tipton should have converted Lee Hardy's teasing low cross. Thereafter, Motors looked solid, Matt Haddrell and Danny Collins forming a formidable barrier in central defence, protecting 19-year-old goalkeeper Andy Ralph, to the extent that only a low drive by the busy Danny Whitaker gave him much to think about before the second half. He was busier after that, watching another Whitaker rocket narrowly miss and a Lightbourne chip land in the roof of the net.

Ralph later saved with his feet from substitute David Eaton and was at full stretch to keep out another effort from Whitaker.

Momentarily, it seemed that Motors would pull off another shock when Young sent Fearns clear on the left with 13 minutes remaining, only for the latter to see his shot scrambled off the line by Steve Macauley.

Four minutes later, however, Macclesfield made their breakthrough. Former Bermudan international Lightbourne turning home Tipton's low cross from close range. Tipton made sure there would be no upset in the 90th minute, cutting in from the right before drilling home a low shot.

Macclesfield Town 2 Vauxhall Motors 0
Lightbourne 82, Tipton 90

Half-time 0-0 Attendance: 2,972