Warrington, Brighouse, Radcliffe win play-off finals

The Yellows secured their third win over Shields this season, as they repeated their 2-1 win at Mariners Park back in February which was the north east side’s only home league defeat of the campaign.

In front of a 2,337 crowd, Shields took the lead on the half hour mark through a stunning Josh Gillies strike and they were favourites to secure the win.

But just as they had done against Nantwich Town in the semi-final, Warrington would overturn a 1-0 half-time deficit to win.

Dylan Vassallo, a first half substitute for the injured Jack Dunn, fired home a half-volley after Josh Amis had flicked on Jack Mackreth’s cross, and then three minutes from the end, Amis swivelled to shoot across the ‘keeper and find the winner.

Warrington will now host King’s Lynn Town or Alvechurch at Cantilever Park on Saturday to win promotion to National League North.

In the East Division, Brighouse Town stunned Pontefract Collieries with a 3-0 win away from home.

Prolific forward Aaron Martin put Brighouse in to a first half lead, but it was Iwan Heeley’s goal just a minute after the restart that put the game well and truly in their favour.

Gabriel Johnson added a third late on, though Brighouse unfortunately will not earn promotion - save for any clubs withdrawing from leagues above - due to having an inferior points per game.

That means the only play-off final winner guaranteed promotion are Radcliffe, who secured their place in the Premier Division next season with a 2-1 win over Leek Town.

They made hard work of it and had to come from a goal down to secure the win, and it was actually Brighouse’s win over Pontefract that enabled Radcliffe to quality for promotion on points per game.

Their heroes on the day were Tunde Owolabi, who struck early in the second half to cancel out Rob Stevenson’s 37th minute opener, and then Ben Wharton kept his cool from the penalty spot shortly after the hour mark to seal the win.