ADLINGTON captain Simon Trim was a relieved man to see his Association promotion-chasers get back to winning ways with a crucial home success over rivals Astley Bridge on Saturday.

Adlington put a run of three successive league defeats – two to teams around them, Tonge and Little Lever – to bed with a 42-run win built on a series of useful contributions.

The Huyton Road side claimed their seventh win from 11 matches to leapfrog their opponents with six points, moving to within three of second-placed Tonge with Golborne sandwiched in between and Little Lever 10 points clear at the top.

Batting first, the hosts were bowled out for 169 inside 39 overs, with only professional Kamran Hussain (26 from number five) and Naveed Ullah (40 not out from eight) topping 20. Trim was one of three batsmen in their top four who posted teens.

For Bridge, captain David Cryer claimed three wickets having elected to bowl.

In reply, Bridge slipped to 3-4, including the loss of their pro Denuwan Dadallage for a four-ball duck. Hussain claimed two wickets with the new ball on the way to a standout 4-28 from 12 overs.

Bridge were always unlikely to recover from the early damage and were bowled out for 127 inside 45 overs as the rest of the wickets were shared around.

“It was a big win for us,” said Trim. “It’s been a frustrating few weeks. We’ve had a few collapses and haven’t been applying ourselves with the bat.

“We were aiming for 180 plus on Saturday. We didn’t feel a million miles away, but we weren’t comfortable. Thankfully we bowled well.

“The pitch held together really well. There was a bit in it for everyone.

“It was a really good 40 down the order from Naveed. We really needed that. We had a few decent partnerships. Our openers (Liam Kane and Uzair Shafiq) put 46 on in 10 overs and got us off to a decent start. All the bowlers then stepped up.”

Left-arm spinner Iain Critchley claimed two wickets for Adlington and is the Association’s leading wicket-taker with 40.

“Iain is having an incredible season with the ball,” said Trim. “He’s had a bit of bad form with the bat recently, but with the ball you can’t beat him. He’s bowling just the same as he always has done I would say, but just with a bit more reward.”

Leaders Little Lever have significant breathing space, but the next four teams– Tonge, Golborne, Adlington and Astley Bridge – are separated by just seven points with seven rounds remaining as they fight it out for the second promotion place.

“I said at the start of the season that it’s going to be close,” added Trim. “And it’s too tight to call at the moment. There’s so many teams in the race, who would all love to go up. It’s going to go down to the last game.

“We’ve just got to make sure we’re there.

“I’d say our fixtures are away top heavy from now because we had a lot of home games in the first half of the season. We’re not favourites, but we’ll do our best.”