A NEW month brought new fortunes for Tempest United, who made a real statement of intent with a 2-0 win at Premier Division leaders Blackpool Wren Rovers.

A tight first half ended goalless, and the second period had followed in the same vein before two impressive strikes from Jack Coop and Chris Farnworth gave Tempest the points to keep Ross McNair’s side in the title hunt.

The win was just what the doctor ordered after a lousy October for the club.

“We’ve been scoring goals but losing a lot of games, we’ve had a shocking October,” said assistant manager Gary Westhead.

“We did all right for a change on Saturday though, we kept the same personnel but went back to 4-3-3 and looked a different side, like we had been at the start of the season.

“We’d got ourselves into a decent position and let things slip, so in that sense, playing the leaders was a good fixture for us to put a performance in again.

“We got back to basics, worked hard instead of just going through the motions and we reduced them to shooting from distance.

“Once Jack scored a great goal, into the top corner from 25 yards, we peppered their goal and could have had four or five before Farny popped up and drilled one low into the bottom corner.”

Tempest are still 10 points behind Blackpool but Westhead feels, in an open league, that gap is not insurmountable if they can string a few more victories together, starting this weekend against Whitehaven.

“We’ve got a bit of ground to make up but I can see Blackpool dropping points,” he added. “That result will make people sit up and take notice of us and it’s an open league this year and with a good run you give yourselves a chance of being in the mix.”

Meanwhile, Turton needed an injury-time equaliser to bring home a point from their match at Burscough Richmond.

Kieron Sisson had scored in the fourth minute to put the Tigers ahead but they conceded twice and, with the 90 minutes played were 2-1 down.

But Ally Dickson popped up with an equaliser to keep Turton in the top six.

They are back on the road this Saturday, travelling to Hesketh Bank. Tempest will host Whitehaven.

In Division One the day’s big winners were Eagley, who hit GSK Ulverston for six.

After Andy Haynes’ opening goal, Jon Stevenson grabbed three and player-manager Simon Whaley two in a 6-2 win that puts the Eagles fourth, still in touch with the three-way tie that has emerged above them.

Stoneclough ended their miserable recent run with a 4-2 win at Wyre Villa but it was a bad day at the office for CMB, who went down 5-0 at Poulton.

They will hope for better when they host Fulwood Amateurs in the Lancashire FA Amateur Shield this Saturday.

In Division Two, Ladybridge extended their lead at the top of the table, taking advantage of nearest challengers Leyland’s game against Padiham Reserves being postponed.

Dean Walmsley’s side chalked up their 10th league win of the season, beating Dalton United 3-1, thanks to two goals from Benson Johnson and one from Mark Truffas. Now five points clear of Leyland, Ladybridge will host second-bottom Furness Cavaliers this Saturday.