THE battle to beat the drop in the Premier Division started to hot up on Saturday following victories for three of our four local sides struggling at the bottom.

Little Lever SC bounced back from an 8-3 thrashing the week before to wipe the floor with reigning champions Prestwich.

The second-bottom side reacted well to their humiliating defeat by relegation rivals Howe Bridge Mills to storm into a 3-0 lead before half-time.

They then held their nerve after conceding just after the break to go on to win 5-1.

Lee Valentine crashed home the opener after making a late run into the box before Rob Beattie calmly rounded the Prestwich keeper to double their advantage.

Ste Taylor then headed a third from a corner before Scott Bingham settled any lingering nerves with Little Lever’s fourth midway through the second half and Beattie doubled his own tally for the day to secure a deserved victory.

“It was good to see us keep 11 men on the pitch, which we have not been able to do for a while, and the lads’ reaction gave us plenty of cause for optimism looking forward,” said assistant manager Mark Brown.

“We left a couple of lads out and gave them a bit of a telling off, and they looked like a completely different team.

“Hopefully, we can build on that display now.”

The three points moved Little Lever five clear of basement club Castle Hill, whose match at Old Mancunians was postponed.

But they remain four points adrift of third-bottom Howe Bridge in the final relegation place.

Paul White’s Howe Bridge outfit made it three straight wins in all competitions with a battling 3-2 victory at fifth-placed Bury GSOB.

They went behind near the start of each half, but each time equalised through goals from star striker Alex Luby, who increased his tally to 13 from his last seven matches.

Luby’s second strike came in the 80th minute, but Howe Bridge were reduced to 10 men almost immediately after that after Scott Fletcher picked up a second yellow card.

Yet they kept fighting and substitute Chris Anderson marked his return from one month out with a foot injury to score a late winner.

Horwich Victoria, who only recently moved out of the bottom two, continued their recent improvement with a 1-0 win at fourth-placed Tottington United.

Danny Warburton grabbed the only goal on 55 minutes, tapping in after Matty Hancock had pushed the ball past the Bury keeper following a through ball from Danny Mills.

Vics hung on to move into 10th place, but had veteran replacement stopper Paul Walsh to thank for all three points after the 40-year-old made a superb reaction save in the closing stages.

At the other end, Old Boltonians’ top-of-the-table clash against leaders Mostonians was postponed.