MATTY McDonald went from villain to hero as Warrington Town progressed to the Cheshire Senior Cup quarter-finals on Tuesday night.

Three days after being sent off during Town's Vanarama National League North defeat at Kidderminster Harriers, the midfielder - wearing the captain's armband - scored the winning goal as Yellows saw off a youthful Stockport County side at the Cal.Delivery Stadium.

With 10 minutes of the game to go, McDonald strode through the middle and calmly slotted beyond County goalkeeper Max Metcalfe to settle the tie.

Town had earlier missed a golden chance to take the lead when Joe Rodwell-Grant saw his penalty saved by Metcalfe having been taken down inside the area by the 'keeper, but Paul Carden's side now progress to a home tie against Crewe Alexandra in the last eight.

"I thought they were lively in the first half and moved it well – you could see what they work on and there’s some good young players there," manager Carden said post-match.

"I was impressed with one or two of their players but in the second half, when we stepped on it we had a lot of chances. We probably should have increased the scoreline by at least a couple.

"We mixed the team up a little bit as we had a few players carrying knocks from the weekend, so it was important to mix it up.

"We brought a few younger lads in and were able to give them minutes, and a couple of them didn’t do themselves any harm.

"Matty McDonald stepped on in the second half – I won’t say he made amends for Saturday because he knows I was disappointed to say the least with that, but his goal shows what he hasn’t really been doing for us in terms of driving through the midfield.

"We know he’s got that but I told him before the game that these stupid, petulant reactions have got to stop because they’re not only hurting himself but they’re hurting the team.

"He knows that – he’s not a daft lad – but you’re confident when he goes through that he’s going to make the net do its job.

"We just need to get more of that from him, especially in the league."

Warrington Town: Atherton, Amaral, O’Neill (Basnett), McDonald, Rodwell-Grant, Bennett (Williamson), Maieco (Adams), Morris, Southern, Hont, Clarke (Gill). Sub not used: Roper