ROB Pennington may have a few head-scratching decisions to make in the coming weeks – but he does not mind one bit.

His CMB team now lead the way in the West Lancashire Division One table and with a number of players returning to Tempest Road, either after injury lay-offs or stints in higher divisions, he may have a juggling act to perform as they bid to secure promotion to the top flight.

Despite falling behind to visitors Kendal County inside three minutes on Saturday, CMB hit back in fine style, establishing a 5-1 lead before half time.

And, though the only goal after the break was a late consolation for the Cumbrians, Pennington was delighted with their emphatic win that moved them a point above previous leaders Leyland United, who suffered a surprise defeat to bottom team Wyre Villa.

“It was pleasing to see how professional we were on Saturday,” he told The Bolton News. “We’d scored five by half time so I wanted to make a few changes, rest one or two and see how the lads reacted to not having some of the more instrumental players on the pitch.

“They did well, it was never going to be the same because the motivation to chase every ball down is never the same when you’ve scored five in the first half.

“But I wanted to give some of the young lads we’ve got a try, that was the main reason we didn’t push on and get more in the second half.

“We were 1-0 down three minutes in but we’d actually started well and could have been in front even before that early goal but we got back to lead 3-1 with about 15 minutes gone.

“Jack Francis got our first, he’s a new lad for us but he’s played two games and scored two goals now so we’re looking forward to seeing more from him. It was a good goal too, Charlie Scholes cut inside his man, shot and hit the post and Jack reacted quickest to put it in.

“Tom Healy got the second, he’s been brilliant since he came back from Glossop North End, he’s technically so gifted. He took a neat first touch from a ball pulled back to him and finished well.

“Charlie made our third goal for Paul Hallows as well, he sent in a ball with loads of bend and whip on it and Paul jumped highest to head in. I was pleased for Charlie to get his goal, he’s our leading scorer and he normally plays up front but we needed him to fill in on the left of midfield.

“He doesn’t moan, he just got on with it and it was a good finish for the fourth after Luke Killeen had charged down their keeper making a clearance.

“Our left-back, Callum Yeardsley, got a really good fifth goal. That was a surging run that he finished by slotting in from 30 yards.”

Pennington managed to squeeze in some of his key players against Kendal, with Hallows back after a groin problem, Scholes playing after being rated at 50-50 that morning and Killeen playing his first match after a four-year break from the game.

Ex-Bury striker Andy Bishop is expected back from a knee injury in a couple of weeks while Ben Thornton could feature this weekend when they take on Crooklands Casuals.

With Bishop, Healy and Matty Chapman all back at CMB after their spell with Glossop in the Evo-Stik West the competition for time on the pitch is fierce and instrumental in their success so far.

Saturday’s victory made it three in league and cup games for Pennington’s high-flying team. And, although CMB have played more games than their title rivals – third-placed Hawcoat Park are two points behind but have five games in hand – the manager is only focusing on what they can affect.

“We have seven league games plus the two cups to go and our aim is to take it one at a time and win every one,” he added. “If we do that, and with the lads coming back to push those in the team we’ve been getting results, we’ll just see where it takes us.

“We’re confident we can get three more points this Saturday, we’ve played Crooklands twice already and beaten them 6-1 in a league game and 3-2 in the President’s Cup.

“We have six games against teams in the bottom four – though there are no easy games in this very competitive division – while a lot of the top teams around us still have to play each other, but we don’t care about what anyone else is doing, if we just do our job and pick up the points we’ll see where it takes us.”

Elsewhere in Division One there were defeats for Eagley – who were hammered 7-0 at Lostock St Gerards – and Stoneclough, defeated 3-2 at Lytham Town.

However, Turton won their Premier Division fixture at home to Fulwood Amateurs, with Ally Dickson and Mike Price scoring in a 2-1 victory.

Horwich St Mary’s Victoria maintained their two-point lead at the top of Division Two by beating Charnock Richard Reserves 2-0, Lewis Davies and Matty Woods netting.

Hallmark Security League First Division North strugglers Atherton LR and Daisy Hill both lost home games on Saturday.

The Daisies were beaten 2-1 by Bacup Borough and bottom team LR went down 3-1 to AFC Liverpool.

In the Lancashire Amateur League Premier Division Old Boltonians lost 3-2 at Old Mancunians and Little Lever shipped six goals without reply in their defeat at leaders Whitworth Valley.

Bolton Wyresdale beat Accrington Amateurs to stay top of Division Two.

In the Manchester League Division One Bolton Lads and Girls Club drew 2-2 at home to Uppermill.