PETER Conroy admitted to a touch of envy ahead of last night’s Hospital Cup final at the Macron.

Stoneclough’s club secretary, heavily involved with league and cup matters in the area, could only look on as his team failed at the semi-final stage against Pennington, who booked their place in the final against Eagley with a 3-2 win.

And, ahead of attending last night’s prestigious final, Conroy conceded Stoneclough were architects of their own downfall at the final-four stage.

“We only had ourselves to blame,” he told The Bolton News.

“Pennington dug in and defended well but even so we should have been out of sight, and then three mistakes by us gave them the goals to put them into the final.

“They are a good team and they’ve got some very talented young lads but we were really kicking ourselves.”

Stoneclough did, to some extent, get that defeat out of their system with a point from their Division One game against leaders Poulton, which was followed by a 9-1 thrashing of Wyre Villa, but Conroy says that was a hollow victory against a side seemingly thrown together late in the day.

“It felt like a bit of a waste of time,” he added. “They were very poor and it could have been 15 or 16-1. It wasn’t worth rolling and marking out the pitch or getting the food on.

“I do sympathise with Wyre Villa though, it’s hard for a lot of lads to be playing Saturday and Bank Holiday Monday because they have other things they have to do in their lives and they had to put some sort of team out or get a £75 fine for failing to play the fixture, we have got a fine to come for that ourselves so I know how difficult it can be.”

Steven Ward led Stoneclough’s goal glut on Monday with a hat-trick, with Jason Perry and Kimel Demiter netting two each and Stuart Parkinson and Chris Cancallis one apiece.

An inconsistent season at Fox Park comes to a close on May 19 when Stoneclough, marooned in mid-table, play the return fixture at Poulton.

One of Conroy’s tips for promotion alongside Poulton, CMB, were 2-1 victors at home to Askam United while Premier Division fixtures saw Tempest United follow Saturday’s 3-1 win at Thornton Cleveleys with a 1-1 draw at home to Hesketh Bank, but Turton suffered two 1-0 defeats, at Vickerstown and Thornton.

n In the Manchester League Division Two Bolton Lads and Girls Club beat Uppermill 4-2 with two strikes by James Kennedy and one each from Jakub Bramwell and Matt Bradbury.

Breightmet United’s season to forget continued with a 6-1 loss at Heywood St James and, in the Premier Division, Bolton County lost 2-1 to Avro.