Cowperthwaite returns as winning start to pre-season continues for Lancaster
A familiar face has returned to Lancaster City and helped Jimmy Marshall's side continue their winning start to pre-season.
Niall Cowperthwaite is back from Kendal Town to be reunited with Dolly Blues boss Marshall and the veteran midfielder featured in Friday's 3-0 win at Longridge Town.
The 34-year-old did not play on Tuesday, when Lancaster made it three pre-season wins out of three with a 4-1 victory at Garstang.
Cowperthwaite initially joined Lancaster from Workington in 2019, then returned to his native Cumbria to link up with Marshall at the Mintcakes two years ago.
“He is very experienced and knows the level well. He also knows the club well and is thought of fondly among the fanbase,” Marshall said of Cowperthwaite, who is Lancaster's eighth summer signing and came on for the second half at Longridge.
Sekouba Sanogo's first goal for the club gave Lancaster the lead last Friday evening, capitalising on a Nic Evangelinos flick to find the bottom corner after 19 minutes.
Lancaster became increasingly dominant and Longridge were indebted to an in-form keeper, who turned Callum Leigh's 30-yard effort against the bar and tipped Joe Amison's header over.
Lancaster's pressure paid off on 66 minutes, when James Nolan also got off the mark for the club with a fine solo strike.
And Dom Lawson made it two goals in two games, converting a last-minute rebound after Steven Yawson's shot was saved. The one worry for Lancaster was an injury to new arrival Tom Bentley-Waite.
They faced NW Counties League opponents again at Garstang, where Amison volleyed home Sam Bailey’s free-kick on 21 minutes. The home keeper then kept Lancaster at bay until half-time but Yawson scored straight after the restart, heading his second before the hour mark from Matthew Tweedley’s cross.
Bailey scored the late fourth direct from a corner before the Dolly Blues conceded their first pre-season goal in stoppage-time.
Having begun with an 8-0 win at nearby Storeys, Lancaster have now scored 15 goals in three friendlies and visit a third NW Counties side, Charnock Richard, on Saturday before hosting Preston North End Under-21s next Tuesday (7.30pm).