DANNY Nicholls helped Bury Hockey Club firsts continue to put pressure on second-placed Bolton with a 5-3 win over Urmston.

The Woodhey side raced into a 5-1 lead thanks to two goals from Nicholls and a goal apiece from Jonny Bray, Ben Hope and Josh Lee.

The pick of the bunch was Nicholls’ second which was a fine team goal - Ian Hillary finally blasting the ball into the D with Nicholls pouncing to ruthlessly lash into the bottom corner.

Victory was the perfect warm up for the derby clash with Bolton knowing victory would move them to within a point of the second-placed side while also end their neighbour’s promotion chances.

And they will be looking to follow their men’s second team who enjoyed a 1-0 win over Bolton second string last weekend.

With Bolton sporting an experienced line up, Bury knew they had come looking to disrupt their pursuit of the league title. Samit Ghosh scored his18th of the season early in the first half, which proved to be the deciding goal.

A long corner was worked to captain Sameer Sheikh who fired the ball into the D and Ghosh was on hand to delicately deflect the ball past the keeper.

Bury were indebted to Johnny Howard in goal as he made several outstanding saves when Bolton’s direct style did manage to break through.

Bury men’s seconds travel to Brooklands where they are expect another tough encounter.

The ladies first team have reached the Division One Cup final after coming from behind to beat Didsbury thirds.

Didsbury opened the scoring following a counter attack and their forward bundled the ball home past Tammy Gifford in goal.

However, for the rest of the match it was all Bury as Didsbury lost all their discipline: losing a player for 10 minutes due to persistent dangerous play and lost all their tactical shape.

Emma Bailey equalised from a penalty stroke on half time after a Bury forward was barged into as she bore down on the ‘keeper.

After the break, Bury scored two superb goals to take charge of the semi final.

Firstly, Rachel Bailey raced down the line, played a one-two with Abby Barber and fired the ball into the D for Charlotte Bates to instinctively finish first time.

Bates also grabbed the third goal following fine build-up play by Barber, Bailey and Sophie Foreman.

While Didsbury pulled a late goal back, Bury comfortably held on for the win.

Bury ladies seconds went down 3-1 to Prescot in the Division Two Cup on Saturday then lost 5-2 to Bolton in the league on Sunday - a stunning goal by Rachel Bailey and a strike from the returning Ange Shore the highlights.