BARELY any champagne passed their lips but the celebrations were sparkling as Old Boltonians won the Lancashire FA Amateur Cup final.

Old Bolts claimed the county crown with a 3-0 victory over Southport and Ainsdale Amateurs in the final at Leyland, capping a season in which they finished second in the Lancashire Amateur League Premier Division.

Club officials had debated the merits of taking a stash of bubbly to the final at the county FA's headquarters but did not want to tempt fate.

And, with victory in the bag, the hastily-purchased bottles were sprayed around, or worn, rather than drank.

Not that manager Steve Eccleshare was too concerned by his players' wastefulness.

"It was a brilliant night for us, everything was in place for us, and we had every lad that we wanted available," he said.

"We didn't want to take any champagne, it didn't seem right, so the chairman ran to Asda across the road and bought a couple of bottles when we had the game won.

"No one drank any though, I think it all got sprayed around and ended up on the floor."

The Old Bolts players deserved their celebrations after running out emphatic winners against a strong Southport side, with leading scorer Darren Dalton and Matt McLellan establishing a two-goal lead before their opponents were reduced to 10 men shortly before half time.

And when McLellan sealed the win with a third goal late in the day, lobbing the Southport keeper after Rob Taylor's through ball, the club could get the party started.

"We got a penalty very early on," said Eccleshare. "We had done our research on Southport and Ainsdale and we knew if we got into their box we could cause them problems and that's what happened, they committed a foul and with the penalty Darren took his total to 38 for the season.

"Matt scored our second and we were in control, and their lad was sent off for a really bad foul on Lucas Gaynor, a leg-breaker.

"In the second half they threw the kitchen sink at us but we weathered the storm really well.

"We deserved to win, we played really well against what is a very good team, and how many cup finals do teams win by a three-goal margin as well as keeping a clean sheet?"

The cup final gave the Tower Street club a grand finale to a season that had started in disappointing fashion. And it is those initial weeks where they fell out of contention for the league title which went to Failsworth Dynamos.

And the manager – who has already begun his rebuilding for next term - is determined such a slow start will not happen next time around.

“We haven’t finished below second in any league season in five years now,” he added. “And this year we have scored a record number of goals so it hasn’t been a bad season, we just had a really bad start and the damage was done then. We had a bit of a clearout and went on a good run. We probably ended up having one of our best seasons and we were the only team to beat Failsworth in the league.

“We have got three players coming in for next season, we have to have a bigger squad if we’re going to compete and win things.

“I’ve been asked by a few people if I’ll be carrying on, but I’m not stopping. I’ve learned so much over the past few years why would I stop now? I’m enjoying it too much.”