FC United entertain Buxton at Gigg Lane on Saturday after they swaggered back down the M6 with all three points First-half goals from Jerome Wright and Simon Carden were enough to claim a victory that puts the Reds back in the play-off contention.

Substitute Michael Cole fired home a penalty with 25 minutes to go to set up a tense finale, but Sam Ashton was never really troubled and the men from Manchester saw out the victory in front of 1,010 supporters at Parkside Road.

Wright, playing up front with Carl Lomax, opened the scoring for United after only 12 minutes.

Lomax wriggled free of the home defence and had just enough time to square the ball to the unmarked Wright at the edge of the box.

The winger was in no mood to pass up the gift of a chance and moved into the area before confidently slotting the ball into the bottom right corner past David Newnes.

United doubled their lead 16 minutes later thanks to a sweeping move which saw Dave Neville slip a pass in behind the Town defence to Carden.

The midfielder looked like he could have been offside and for a split second the game stopped as both sets of players looked to the linesman. However, with no flag raised the number eight coolly slotted the ball past the oncoming Newnes to make it two.

Carlos Roca missed a golden opportunity to put FC further ahead before Michael Cole pulled one back from the penalty spot with 25 minutes to go.