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Marsh now hold clear advantage in North Lancs
INCREDIBLY, Saturday was the first time a full fixture list in the North Lancashire League was played this season with all 30 fixtures being completed.
Premier Division leaders Marsh United extended their lead at the top to three points as results went their way.
Marsh United were the only one of the three favourites to win their tricky away fixture. Marsh took on Carnforth Rangers and with both teams on good runs, something had to give.
Carnforth made the early running with Byron Nixon having a shot cleared off the line. The game was played at a fast pace but the game settled to be a midfield battle.
Carnforth created the better chances with a Matthew Garwood shot being blocked on the goal line.
When the goal came, it was against the run of play. The ball was passed back to Chris Parry in Carnforth's goal and as he tried to control it, Lee Sparks nipped in and took the ball off his toe end and put the ball into an empty net.
The second half saw Carnforth trying to get the equaliser but the Marsh defence was just too good.
Storeys travelled to Cartmel and lost 3-1. Storeys took the lead when Adam Airey took advantage of some poor defending to score but Cartmel piled on the pressure and forced an equaliser through Joel Drinkall.
Carl Davidson put Cartmel into a 2-1 lead as Storeys were unable to seriously trouble them.
Storeys' troubles mounted when Bob Eccles put through his own goals to make the game safe for Cartmel who move into fifth.
Highgrove, the third team in with a chance of claiming the title, faced a hard battle against an improving Halton Rangers.
The first half was quite even as Tom Lund scored for Halton and Dan Broadley equalised.
The second half was more frenetic as both sides committed themselves to all-out attack. Slightly against the run of play, Highgrove went into a 2-1 lead when Luke Ogley scored.
But Halton never gave up and in Jonathan Pink they had the man of the match. He had already set up Lund for his goal and played a marvellous pass to sub Simon Harrison who took his chance well to earn a well-deserved draw for his side.
Caton United, still without a win all season, again fought hard to overcome that record. Not for the first time this season, they got off to a terrible start, finding themselves 2-0 down to Galgate with goals by Tom Gammon.
Once Caton got started, they matched Galgate in every department and at half-time, they had turned the game round to lead 3-2 with Andy Kehoe getting his first goal of the season and a brace from Dave Bamford.
Within minutes of the restart, Galgate had drawn level when Gammon completed his hat-trick but Caton went back in front to lead 4-3 when Darren Green scored a fabulous goal.
Galgate fought back to equalise again when young Jamie Fairclough scored and with time running out, they won the game with a Chris Haslam header.
Probably the biggest shock of the season so far was the defeat of Morecambe Hoops by a Swarthmoor Social Club side that had not won a game all season.
The Hoops were as bad this week as they were good last week when they beat TIC Dynamos.
The game plan of Swarthmoor worked a treat for them and they managed the only goal through John Thompson.
The Hoops management said their side were pathetic and it was their worst performance since joining the league, but they gave credit to Swarthmoor for their performance.
TIC Dynamos shook off last week's disappointing performance to beat Kirkby Lonsdale 5-0, a scoreline which could have been more if it had not been for the Kirkby keeper.
TIC had the man of the match in Martin Lewis who scored a superb hat-trick, Oliver Campbell and Stuart Rushworth also scoring.
Torrisholme moved off the bottom of Division One when they beat Grange 4-1. Grange now drop to the bottom.
Torrisholme played far better than they have done all season and deserved the win with goals from Scott Shields, Tobi McNeil and an excellent double by Rob O'Brien. Craig Turner scored a consolation for Grange.
Leaders Bowerham stay 12 points clear after a good workmanlike performance against Highgrove Reserves.
Bowerham took the lead through a Tom Devlin header before Phil Meeks scored a good goal to make it 2-0.
Highgrove almost pulled a goal back following a great right wing run by 16-year-old Jake Hope but goals from Tom Spencely and Andy Doggart made the game safe for Bowerham.
Morecambe Royals Reserves opened up a deserved 3-0 half-time lead against fourth-placed Marsh United Reserves with goals by Kieron O'Connor, Luke Suligoski and Hakan Optem.
But they switched off in the second half and Craig Gribbin scored a penalty for Marsh, who were spurred on to another goal through Lee Stewart.
Marsh piled on the pressure looking for the equaliser but the Royals defence just managed, after a few scares, to hold out.
The match of the day was between second-placed Bentham and third-placed Slyne-with-Hest (Lcc).
Slyne's defence was run ragged by the speedy James Earnshaw. It was defensive mistakes that allowed Bentham to score through Kieron Spencer, Daniel Briggs-Calvert, James Earnshaw and substitute Jamie Parker.
Slyne scorers were Simon Marshall and Michael Denwood. Bentham have now opened up a gap of four points over Slyne.
Boys Club shook Storeys Reserves when they opened the scoring through Aaron Pierce but Storeys bounced back to win the game 3-1 with Steve Creed scoring twice and Paul Boyle adding the goal of the game to seal the win.
In Divison Two, Freehold continued their good form with a 2-1 win over Westgate Wanderers.
Phil Oliver started his first game since joining Freehold and made the most of his appearance, scoring twice in a 2-1 win.
Westgate came close to taking a point after Ryan Marshall scored with 10 minutes left but Freehold held on.
Furness Rovers, after beating leaders Bolton-le-Sands last week, crashed to a 2-0 defeat against a confident Slyne-with-Hest (Lcc )A team. Goals by John Durnam, a great header, and veteran David Lupton were enough for Slyne to win.
Bolton-le-Sands bounced back in style from last week's first defeat of the season to comfortably overcome a gutsy Galgate Reserves side which is fighting to stay in the division, winning 4-1 with Mark Smith scoring twice.
Kirkby Lonsdale Reserves, the division's most improved team, travelled to play Morecambe Cricket Club and won 4-2 with 16-year-old Grant Troughton scoring a hat-trick.
In Division Three, leaders Allithwaite Rangers had to struggle against lowly Boys Club Reserves before winning 2-1. Boys Club played far better than their lowly position suggests but could not convert their chances.
Favourites for promotion, Squires, were surprisingly held to a 2-2 draw by a Bolton-le-Sands Reserves side that were last season's champions but have currently won only two games so far this season.
Richard McDonnell scored the only goal of a tight game played by two good teams as Halton Rangers Reserves beat Burton Thistle 1-0.
The match of the day was between third-placed Bentham Reserves and fourth-placed Carnforth Reserves with promotion very much on for both sides. As expected both sides went all out for three point but they had to be happy with a point in a 1-1 draw.
Heysham probably condemned Grange Reserves to relegation when they won comfortably 3-0 and in doing so probably preserved their Division Three status, Dean Knight scoring twice.
Arnside Reserves missed a great chance to move away from relegation place when they lost 2-1 to Gregson, who are on the fringe of the promotion charge.
Division Four leaders Morecambe Gold made heavy weather of beating Morecambe Cricket Club Reserves but came through in the end 4-0, an important win as the chasing group also keep winning.
Second-placed Moghuls nearly came a cropper against Overton Reserves, who came back from 3-0 down at half-time but could not manage an equaliser, Moghuls winning 3-2.
AFC Moorlands were under strength but were still strong enough to beat Heysham Reserves 3-1.
College AFC Reserves looked to be heading for a comfortable win over Highgrove Colts side as they opened up a 3-0 lead in the first half.
But as the second half wore on, the College side started to tire under the Colts pressure and they managed to score five without reply in the second half to secure a superb comeback win, 5-3.
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Weather for Lancaster
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Light sleet
Temperature: 3 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South
