HORWICH St Mary’s Victoria barely got out of second gear in their game at home to Old Mancunians but it was still enough to run out 3-1 winners.

After Aaron Rogers had given them a third-minute lead with a cool, calm and collected finish, Horwich went into auto-pilot, especially when they doubled the lead through Sulay Breaux on 20 minutes.

Breaux was offered the simplest of finishes once Sam Parkinson’s shot was parried out to him and slotted in from four yards to put his side on the way to a routine win.

But a goal shortly before half time on a rare foray into Horwich territory for Old Mancunians forced them into something of a rethink.

It was not until an hour of play had gone that they sealed victory, Parkinson converting from the penalty spot after he had been felled in the area.

Joint-manager Dave Walker said Horwich’s back line were rarely troubled in a game with a typical ‘end-of-season’ feel to it. “We were deserving winners, it wasn’t a great game if I’m honest though,” he said.

“They had a bit of a spell late in the first half but when they pulled one back it was against the run of play and that was about the only time they threatened.

“We were the ones creating opportunities and Sam had one cleared off the line as well as scoring a deserved goal.”

The win means Horwich retained second spot in the Premier Division but with local rivals below them having games in hand Walker does not expect them to end the campaign there. “I think we’ll finish fourth,” he added. “We have lost too many games and have just one to play, Old Bolts and Blackrod have three each so I expect they’ll overtake us.

“We would be disappointed not to finish in second because we feel we’ve thrown too many points away but we would still consider fourth as a successful season, especially as we have struggled with having a lot of players unavailable for various reasons.”

Old Bolts remained level on points with Horwich after their own 3-1 win, at home to Old Blackburnians.

Man-of-the-match Leon Farrimond was on the score sheet, adding to Darren Dalton’s double, which took their top scorer to nine goals in five games.

In Division One, Bolton Wyresdale’s fourth game in eight days saw them defeated 4-3 at home to Radcliffe St Mary’s.