TEMPEST United are starting to believe third place in the Premier Division could be achievable after a fifth straight league victory on Saturday.

An 82nd-minute strike by Steve Barlow, after Chris Farnworth had beat three men to set up the chance, was enough to take all three points home from 11th-placed Slyne with Hest.

And assistant manager Gary Westhead admits the Bolton side’s recent good run has raised ambitions.

“We’ve won five on the bounce in the league and four of them have been clean sheets so we’re going well,” he said.

“We’ve got Blackpool Wren Rovers on Saturday and that will be a big test for us.

“We’ve got games in hand on third place and still got to play them.

“We would have taken mid-table at the start of the season to be honest but we’re getting a bit giddy and looking at seeing if we can get that third place. It’s not beyond us and you always have to aim high.

“We’ve got a semi-final of the cup coming up too so things are going really well for us.”

Tempest were not at their best on Saturday as chances went begging on a bobbly pitch.

“It was a tough game,” added Westhead. “They even apologised to us about the state of the pitch and when that happens you know it’s bad.

“It was a bit of a leveller but we had three one-on-ones in the first 20 minutes and didn’t take any of them.

“It should have been game over by then but then they put pressure on us.

“When we missed another couple of chances it was looking like 0-0 or one of those games where they might pinch it until Chris and Steve popped up with the goal.”

Turton were also not at their best as they took a point from a 2-2 home draw with Vickerstown.

Connor Close cancelled out an 18th-minute Vickerstown opener two minutes later when he reacted quickest in the box after the visiting keeper parried a cross.

Matt Eckersley put ninth-placed Turton ahead on the stroke of half time from the penalty spot after Danny Locke had been brought down before the 10th-placed Cumbrians equalised on 74 minutes.

“We were just sloppy,” said manager Neil Hart. “We just didn’t stick to the gameplan and we weren’t aggressive enough when we lost possession.

“We’re a team that likes to dominate possession and we just couldn’t get control of the game at any point.

“A point was probably what we deserved although when you’re 2-1 up with 15 minutes to go you are thinking you might just take all three.

“We’ve no complaints though because it wasn’t a good performance at all.”

Eagley are four points adrift at the bottom of the table after a 3-2 defeat away to seventh-placed Thornton Cleveleys.

The Dunscar side went 2-0 up through early goals from Jon Stephenson and Bailey Wallace before the home side hit back with two first-half goals and a 70th-minute winner.

Bolton County are flying high in fourth place in the Manchester League Premier Division following a 4-0 home victory over 15th-placed Altrincham Hale.

Goals by Liam Stewart, Michael Williams and two from Tom Helsby made it a good day for the Darcy Lever side while near neighbours Breightmet United went down 3-0 at Leigh Athletic in the First Division to leave themselves in 16th place.