STEETON made it four unbeaten in the league with a comprehensive victory away at high flying Cammell Laird.
Inflicting a first home defeat of the season on the team sat second in the division, manager Roy Mason was left beaming and with nothing but praise for his side.
And it was praise well deserved indeed as the Chevrons produced one of their performances of the season to date to make the long journey to the banks of the Wirral a worthwhile one.
The first half was all Steeton as the visitors picked up where they left off in midweek with a controlled and comfortable performance throughout the first forty-five minutes.
Kevin Gonzalez nearly got his side of the dream start but his strike was cleared for a corner.
From the set-piece, the hosts failed to clear their lines and allowed Josh Coe to switch the ball left for Macca Smith.
Smith’s initial strike was saved by the goalkeeper and the ball bounced up into the face of Andy Briggs.
Briggs didn’t know too much about it but was left celebrating as the ball fell inside the far post for the opening goal.
In front and in the ascendency, the visitors kept on the pressure and pushed for an immediate second.
Creating a number of half chances to keep the Lairds backline busy, Arley Barnes found himself denied his first of the season by a heroic defensive block to turn a goal bound volley over the crossbar.
The linesman then frustrated Josh Coe as he went through on goal and found himself one-on-one before being pulled back by a late offside flag.
As half-time approached, Briggs doubled his side’s lead but all the credit and hard work was down to Alfie Dowden.
The left-back won the ball and skipped through two challenges to break down the channel.
Playing a lovely one-two with Gonzalez to create the overlap, Dowden then squared the ball across the face of goal allowing Briggs to tap home from close range.
In the closing stages of the half, more solid Lairds defending stopped Steeton finding a third with last ditch challenges denying both Gonzalez and Fermin Fernandez.
And on the brink of the whistle, Briggs went down inside the area under pressure with the referee waving away any penalty appeals from those in white.
Steeton began the second half in the same vein in which they had played the first and will feel they squandered two great chances to put the result beyond doubt.
Seconds after the restart, Smith’s wicked cross towards the far post was headed over from close range by Briggs as the striker got under the ball rather than connecting with the forehead as he had hoped.
Coe then saw a volley trickle agonisingly wide after Joe Edmonds nodded the ball into his path following great work down the left by Gonzalez.
The home side then had their only real sustained period of possession of the game as they looked for the goal to get them back into the arm wrestle.
However, they were met by a determined Steeton defence desperate for a clean sheet with Barnes making two superb blocks either side of a routine stop by Brad Emmerson in goal.
With the clock running down, the visitors again created chances to put the game to bed.
Marley Spence saw his curling effort from range go agonisingly wide.
Adam Terrelonge was then put through on goal by a Briggs flick-on, but the Steeton substitute was denied by the outstretched foot of Joshua Brooks in the Lairds goal with the goal at his mercy.
STEETON (Subs): Emmerson; M Smith; Dowden; Barnes; Storton; Spence; Edmonds (Burrows); Fernandez (Mitchell); Coe (Alasttal); Gonzalez (Terrelonge); Briggs (Longley)
GOALS (Assist): Briggs 3’ (M Smith), 38’ (Dowden)
