THERE was last-gasp heartbreak for Horwich St Mary's Victoria in their first outing of the year, losing to Old Boltonians' 92-minute winner.

Vics remain second in the Lancashire Amateur League Premier Division table but the 2-1 defeat means they lost ground on leaders Failsworth Dynamos.

Meanwhile, Bolts are still harbouring ambitions of a charge towards to the top as they have several games in hand on the sides above them.

Steve Eccleshare's team face Failsworth this weekend, hoping to put an end to the leaders' 100 per cent record and open up a title race that has looked all but over after the first half of the season.

"I think they've peaked too soon," said Eccleshare. "They are far ahead but they only need to falter for a few games and other teams can get back in it. I know them well, especially a few of their lads from the inter-league side, and I don't feel they're much different to us.

"We have already played them this season, we had a lot of possession and were beating them for most of the game but one mistake cost us and we lost 2-1."

For most of Saturday's game Boltonians had looked like being defeated by their local rivals, trailing 1-0 to a fine free kick from Glen Matthews. But with Leon Farrimond instrumental in their fightback Lee Worswick's perfectly-placed free kick levelled the match on 75 minutes and, with two added minutes played Matt McClellan scored the winner with the final kick of the game.

"Horwich had struggled to get into the game in the early stages as we passed it round really well," said Eccleshare. "But they are dangerous at set pieces and, after we had got away with one, they scored with their second so we had been on top but came off second best.

"We knew we had to come up with something at half time, the way the league is a draw was no good to us so we needed to get back into it quickly. We took a while to get used to the changes we'd made and found their back three hard to break down but Lee came up trumps from outside the box.

"We went for it then and the pressure was on their goal after that, fortunately Matt got the goal with the last kick.

"Everything I asked of them they executed to perfection and it is good to see what we work on in training paying off."

While the Bolts boss still harbours title hopes, his Horwich counterpart Dave Walker is less convinced Failsworth will drop enough points for his side to overtake them.

"I can't see them being caught now," said the Victoria joint-manager. "We will focus on getting results but we are just looking to finish as high as we possibly can now, and maybe hope for a good cup run towards the back end of the season.

"We're so disappointed not to have taken three points, we had been on top for a spell and tired towards the end. I thought we were unlucky but in the main I'm happy with how the lads played.

"Glen scored with a great free kick, curled right into the top corner and we had one effort tipped onto the bar, which would have made it 2-0 and it would have been a different story if that had gone in.

"We need to take our chances and kill teams off."