BREIGHTMET United produced the shock of the day in the Manchester League when they hammered Division One leaders Elton Vale 7-2 on their own patch.

In-form wide man Kurt Farlow scored four of the goals – two in each half – as the men from Moss Park produced a performance manager Simon Wilcox described as “mesmerising”.

But the United boss admitted he was not entirely happy as he left Vale’s Foulds Avenue ground.

“I grumbled all the way home because after going 7-0 up we let in two sloppy goals and missed half a dozen one-on-ones with their keeper,” he said.

“The scoreline just didn’t reflect how well we played. We went with just one sub and before the game I’d have been happy with a draw. But we got off on the right foot when Kurt Farlow put us in front with a skidding 20-yard shot after just two or three minutes and the goals came at regular intervals after that.

“I’ve been saying for some time that if we clicked somebody was in for a hammering because up to now we haven’t put 90 minutes together – and we still haven’t.

“I was gutted we didn’t get to double figures because if we had they couldn’t have complained. We took them apart.

“It was a mesmerising, awesome performance, until that last 10 minutes.”

In addition to Kurt Farlow’s first-half double, his brother Ash and Tommy Williams were on target as Breightmet stormed into a 4-0 half-time lead.

Kurt Farlow then scored twice more after the break with Gary McShane netting the other in a victory that took Breightmet, who had a poor start to the season, up to fifth in the table.

Although still 10 points behind Elton Vale, who remain top, Wilcox believes Breightmet can still mount a challenge for the title.

“It’s in our hands,” he added. “There’s no one in this league for us to be scared of.”

Early leaders Atherton Town were left smarting after a 2-1 defeat at Irlam Steel that saw them drop to sixth.

The Howe Bridge-based side were furious when, after coming from behind to level the scores at 1-1, they were denied a penalty in stoppage time and seconds later conceded the winning goal from a corner.

“It was stonewall penalty,” said Town manager Shaun Lynch. “Matt Jackson took the ball round their keeper and had his shinpads clipped. It wasn’t given and they went up the other end and scored.

“A draw would have been a fair result, but we definitely didn’t deserve to lose. We played all right on a difficult surface, but couldn’t put our chances away, which has been a big problem for us this season.

“We should have been 2-0 up at half time with the chances we had but it was still 0-0 after 80 minutes, then they scored a good goal. We got one back from a corner straight away when Lee Parton scored with a near-post flick and it looked like ending that way.”

There was some consolation for Lynch in the performances in midfield of Jack Nixon and Louis Morris – two of three players who were handed debuts on Saturday after impressing in the reserves.