OLD Boltonians moved to within four points of top spot with a hard-fought derby victory over Castle Hill.

Steve Eccleshare's high-flyers won 3 -2 against their bottom placed neighbours in a tense game, which could have gone either way.

Both Eccleshare and Castle Hill counterpart Rob Rostron acknowledged the game had been "a pleasure to be part of" and that it had been played in "the right spirit."

The tempo of play was high throughout - in spite of the heavy pitch- and provided a stern new year fitness test for the outfield players.

The home favourites started the better and in the eighth minute Dean Hailwood fired in a brilliant goal from thirty yards. Just one minute later though and Castle Hill had equalised; Sam Brooks side-stepped his man on the left wing and shot into the bottom corner.

Castle dominated the ball for the remainder of the half and took a deserved 2-1 lead into the break after a Carl Henry tap-in.

His goal came on half an hour: Dom Collquit spotted Old Bolts keeper Gary Bradshaw off his line and went for the lob. Bradshaw failed to catch the shot and Henry was on hand for a simple finish.

A disgruntled Eccleshare urged his team to "push quickly out of the blocks and get some shots off" in the second half.

His words were heeded, when, on 55 minutes, centre-back Tom Allcroft shot into the top left from the edge of the box, tying the game at 2-2.

Old Bolts added another soon after as Dave Warburton netted his fifth of the season after finding space in the box.

Castle could not force an equaliser as Rob Rostron was left to rue only having one substitute.

"We dominated the first half and should have gone in 4-1 up." Our on-going problem though is strength in depth. We were reduced to one sub when Chris Cankalis broke down in the warm-up", he said.

Ahead of their next game against Howe Bridge Mills, Rostron also fired a warning to his players, "Rory Brooks is putting on some great training sessions and so those who don't train, don't get picked."

Relegation threatened Little Lever SC were left to rue conceding a late penalty as they lost 3-2 at home to Horwich Victoria. A woeful start saw Lever 2-0 down inside 15 minutes. Sean Johnson scored the opener before Dean Spencer grabbed his eighth of the campaign; both goals coming courtesy of through balls. Lever's Bingham brothers conspired to reduced the deficit as Scott was set up by Andy.

As the hosts continued to rally, Vics' debutant keeper Chris Smith was forced into making some fine saves before the break.

Scott Bingham scored again early in the second half to make it 2-2. Hopes of a Lever victory were thin after Vics attacker Matthew Makinson was held by the shirt. The referee pointed to the spot and Danny Mills duly converted. The visitors held firm in the final ten minutes to move up to eighth in the table. Manager Danny Holmes is confident of securing a mid-table finish, saying,"We only have teams around us left to play and after the pre-Christmas win against Tottingham United we have bags of confidence."

Howe Bridge Mills extended their unbeaten run to five games as they beat North Walkden 3-1 at home.

Paul White's men leapfrogged Old Blackburnians into 11th place as they reaped the benefit of having new signings in the team.

In the opening ten-minutes the hosts were excellent. Reward came through an Elliot Beaver goal from 20 yards. A sloppy goal conceded from a corner meant that the Atherton team were held 1-1 at the break.

They emerged confidently however and scored two quick goals. First Chris Anderton scored from a corner when he volleyed in a loose ball and then striker Alex Luby scored on the break- his fourteenth of the season. Mills remained on top to the end , claiming a fifth win of the season. Manager White will be expecting three points on Saturday against bottom placed Castle Hill.