ATHERTON Laburnum Rovers recorded their first victory in five matches as they welcomed promotion chasing Hanley Town to Crilly Park.

Striker Kristian Holt opened the scoring on 27 minutes after a long upfield ball caused confusion in the Hanley defence and he passed the ball into the net.

The lead was doubled on 35 minutes when Matty Boland scored his seventh of the campaign from the edge of the area.

On the stroke of half time Hanley pulled a goal back through Theo Stair from the penalty spot.

Holt grabbed a second on 64 minutes after the referee allowed play to continue after a brash challenge on the striker.

Six minutes later and Rovers lead was cut short again with a goal.

Holt wrapped up his hat-trick on 82 minutes when LR were able to pounce on the counter attack. Hanley had the final say when Josh Harris scored a penalty.

Unfortunately, the very last kick of the match saw a poor challenge from Hanley result in a brawl between both sides.

Atherton defender Craig Dickinson reacted by pushing the offending player to the floor with both hands before being shown a red card as the two teams were walking off to the changing rooms.

This superb result sees LR rise up to sixth place with their opponents missing the chance to close the gap on Nelson and Atherton Collieries who occupy the two promotion places.

Elsewhere, Daisy Hill are now without a win in 12 matches and have scored only two goals in the last six.

They were tasked with a tough fixture at Nelson and ultimately lost 8-0 with former striker Sakeel Abdullah scoring twice in the demolition.