Manchester League

ADAM Lucas’s first goal in Hindsford colours gave the Squires Lane men the bragging rights after a closely-contested Premier Division derby at Atherton Town.

With a number of games in the area postponed because of waterlogged pitches, a crowd of more than 130 turned up at Howe Bridge and were treated to a hard-fought contest – the result of which was in doubt until 15 minutes from time.

The Town defence failed to clear a corner and Lucas – a defensive midfielder making his third appearance since signing from Monton – pounced to score the game’s only goal.

The win left reigning champions Hindsford fourth in the table but with games in hand on all the teams above them – a situation manager Barry Massey is encouraged by as his club seeks a fourth successive league title.

“If we can win 1-0 every week I’ll be more than happy,” he said. “They keep giving me heart attacks during games, but after drawing the last two I was relieved to see that winning goal finally go in.

“It was a good little battle and they (Town) played well, but our defence and goalkeeper were outstanding again.”

Town boss Shaun Lynch, who rang the changes after the previous week’s 5-0 defeat at Springhead - the most significant change being Ryan Heapey’s switch from full-back to centre-back - was satisfied with the performance of his young team, if not the result.

“We dominated periods of the game and had them on the rack in the last 15 minutes, but the defended well and held out,” Lynch said.

“A draw would have been a fairer result, but they took their chance and that’s probably why they are champions.

“ Only four of our starting line-up were over 20 and it’s to their credit that they gave a team like Hindsford such a good game. After the Springhead defeat we came back strongly and showed a bit of character.

“I made four changes, including moving Ryann Heapey back to the centre of defence and he was our man of the match. We also got good performances from Lewis Welch and Mason Sunderland.”

Breightmet United were just seconds away from taking maximum points from their Division One clash with third-placed Hollinwood.

Leading through Jordan Mulligan’s close-range strike on the half hour, United dominated the visitors but failed to turn their superiority into chances and paid the penalty in the second minute of added time when Hollinwood grabbed the equaliser.

“We were gutted, “ Breightmet manager Simon Wilcox said after the 1-1 draw.

“We played well but, for all our dominance, we didn’t create anywhere near enough chances. We need to be more ruthless.”

Pennington’s weakened team was left shellshocked after an 11-3 defeat at Heywood St James.

A goal down after three minutes to a disputed penalty, the men from Jubilee Park hit back to lead 2-1 with goals from Karl Giles and Steven Anderton to lead 2-1. And they matched the home side up to half time by which time they were 3-2 down, having been denied a penalty that could have put them back on terms.

And that was how it stayed until the last 20 minutes when the Saints scored their fourth goal, which prompted a collapse that saw the visitors leak six goals in the last five minutes – punctuated by Giles netting his third.

“”We were missing nine first-choice players and down to the bare bones, player-wise,” said Pennington secretary Dave Farrington, “but that was no excuse for the way we played in the last 10 minutes.

“We were more than a match for them in the first half and it was still 3-2 well into the second half.

“But we stopped running and stopped challenging and seemed to give up, which you can't do in the Manchester League because teams will punish you.”

l, which prompted a collapse that saw the visitors leak six goals in the last five minutes – punctuated by Giles netting his third.