A 54th minute strike by Oliver Puttman was enough to give Congleton Town a win at a freezing Booth Street Stadium on Saturday against Prestwich Heys.
Heys came into this one looking for an improvement after Tuesday's 3-2 home defeat to Padiham and manager Matt Barnes included new signing Regan Jarrett in midfield and also saw centre half Joshua Dickin in the line-up who was returning from injury.
It was the visitors who were first to show with Jarrett making a couple of runs at the home defence on the left and striker Jack Coop could not connect to a through ball on 4 minutes.
Back came Congleton on 17 minutes with a header cleared off the line before a free kick was awarded to Heys as the game struggled to get going in freezing conditions seeing very few chances for either side with just one effort on 40 minutes from Heys Greg Daniels being caught by Congleton keeper David Parton.
It was somewhat a surprise on 41 minutes when a shot from just outside the box on the left from Aaron John's looped over Heys keeper Russ Saunders and into the net to put the home side 1-0 up and that's how it remained at the break.
Prestwich were quick out of the blocks in the second half with Daniels firing into the side netting on the right from 12 yards but the visitor's early efforts were short lived when on 54 minutes a counter attack found Oliver Puttman 18 yards out who hit a lovely well taken shot bottom right with Saunders in the Heys goal having no chance and it was 2-0
Heys tried to get back into the game with Coop blasting wide on 55 minutes and Corey Kelly hitting over the bar after a nice midfield move but the visitors were struggling to find any rhythm or consistency in the play against a well organised Congleton back four.
Greg Daniels continued to work hard for Prestwich and saw a shot from a 25-yard free kick go wide left on 80 minutes and another shot missing the target shortly after and as the clock struck 90 minutes a melee ensued amongst several players when another free kick on the edge of the box was awarded to Heys which was saved from Daniels by Parton and this was the final action of the day.
So, a disappointing afternoon for Heys which typified this up and down season of inconsistancy and next Saturday take on Vauxhall Motors in a game they will be looking for a change in fortunes after this recent slump in form.