TITLE-CHASING Old Boltonians reduced the gap behind Premier Division leaders Mostonians to just one point with a hard-fought 3-0 victory at home to Horwich Victoria.

With three games in hand on the Manchester men, Steve Eccleshare's side are in a commanding position.

But they had to work hard to break down a solid Vics outfit after a first-half stalemate.

Bolts made the breakthrough on 50 minutes when Rob Taylor nodded down a corner for Darren Dalton to fire home.

Lucas Gaynor made it two on the hour with a curling effort from the edge of the box.

Horwich almost pulled one back on 88 minutes when Dean Spencer was denied by a super save from keeper Corey James and defender Nick Holt cleared the follow-up shot off the line.

The home side then went straight back up the other end and made it 3-0 with another curling shot from 18 yards.

"We couldn't pass our way through them in the first half so we changed our tactics to shooting from outside the box and it worked," said Bolts boss Eccleshare.

"We're delighted for Corey to keep a cleansheet because he has only come in in the last three games and done brilliantly."

Vics joint manager Danny Holmes said: "There was nothing between us up to the first goal, which was unfortunate from our point of view because we had a man injured off the pitch so were down to 10 men for the corner.

"To be fair to Old Bolts they took control of the game after that."

At the other end of the table, Castle Hill's hopes of climbing off the bottom were given a welcome boost with an impressive 2-1 victory at Old Mancunians.

Their second successive win saw them come from behind after a 10th-minute opener from the Manchester men.

Gaz Colquitt equalised with a tap-in from Mark Gordon's right-wing cross on 35 minutes and Saul Rostron scored the winner 10 minutes after the interval when he broke down the left and his cross eluded everyone on its way into the net.

"We were down to a bare 11 but we all pulled together," said centre half Marcus Lilley.

"We are down at the bottom but we are going to keep going. That's two wins on the bounce now and we are picking up a bit."