ONLY one local team were in action in the West Lancashire Football League and Bolton County had extra reason to celebrate as their 3-2 win at Walney Island moved them up to fifth in their Division Two.

With pitches being affected throughout the area, Mark Ormrod's side thought their clash in Barrow-in-Furness would also be off and made an early call to cancel their minibus.

It was a decision they regretted as they were forced to make the two-and-a-quarter hour trip by car.

The hosts got off to a bright start by scoring from a scrap in the penalty area after 20 minutes.

County equalised before the break when Jack Egan took a touch before rifling a shot towards the keeper which was parried and Tom Axon-Smith followed up with the rebound.

The visitors were using their 3-5-2 formation to good effect and took the lead when Josh Morris and Matt Ormerod played some delightful one-twos on the edge of the box and Tom Helsby put the ball into the top corner.

The home side pushed forward looking to level the scores but instead another fine pass by Helsby found Axon-Smith and he raced clear to score.

Walney changed things around and put their tall centre-half up front and from a set-piece they scored.

But County managed to keep hold of the ball and saw out the victory.

Ormrod said: "We talked on the way down about our formation and went three at the back with two wing-back and three in midfield.

"It meant we dominated the middle of the park and they could not get to grips with it.

"Matt Brockhouse was great as we played the ball down the right to him and he did lots of running and was tired by the end.

"Jack Egan had a good game in midfield while Dave Hamnett played on the right.

"It was a great team performance and goalkeeper Charlie Helsby made a superb save in the first half."

After the victory, County are still in the hunt for promotion and moved to within seven points of leaders CMB.

Ormrod said: "CMB are running away with it and have games in hand over the rest of the teams.

"But I have not seen anyone apart from CMB that we can't play against and not have a chance."

Eagley, Tempest United, Ladybridge, Stoneclough and CMB were without matches due to the weather.

However, Turton suffered disappointment as their Thomason Fold tie with Blackpool Wren Rovers in the Lancashire Amateur Shield quarter-final was also called off.

Chairman Pete Gray said: "It was very frustrating as we did everything during the week to get game on.

"But on Friday night there was half-an-hour of snow and that covered the pitch and it was frozen.

"With teams travelling the referee had to make an early call on it and even though the sun was out it had to be postponed.

"Under the rules, if a match is abandoned twice then it switches to the other venue.

"It is hard facing a team from the division above but we were hoping home advantage would have helped us."

The cup campaign has also had an impact on their promotion campaign in Division One.

Gray said: "We have four games in hand over the leaders but we were due to play Mill Hill St Peters if we had not cup commitments.

"So we switched our reserves to play at their ground and the game went ahead and we would have played there.

"But that is what happens when you want to go far in the cup.

"It means we will have fixture backlog at the end of the season."