Town bid boosted by home success

OLDHAM TOWN strengthened their promotion push in the first division of the Vodkat North West Counties League following a hard-earned and somewhat ill-tempered 2-0 home victory against Norton United.

The win leaves Town in fourth place, five points behind leaders AFC Liverpool with two matches in hand.

Yet early on it looked as though it might not be Town’s day after Lee Neville hit a post with a penalty and a number of other chances were squandered.

They finally made the breakthrough a minute before the interval when Matt Landregan darted through a resilient Norton defence to slot the ball past advancing keeper Gary Goodwin.

The second half followed a similar pattern as Town wasted further chances and they had to wait until six minutes from time before sealing victory.

Jake Cotterill and Landregan linked and set up Darren Scanlon who was lurking in the penalty area to steer the ball past Goodwin.

Town received another lift when forward James Curley came on for the last 15 minutes, his first action for almost four months since breaking two bones in a foot.


CHADDERTON crashed to a 5-0 defeat at Irlam Town in division one of the Vodkat NWCL.
Manager Paul Buckley admitted it was an afternoon to forget as the Broadway side were punished for some defensive howlers after missing several good chances themselves.

And Buckley believes an enforced three-week break had knocked his side out of its stride. They had previously lost only one of five matches.

Irlam rode their luck at times, but a hat-trick from Chris Palmer and two goals from Sean Smith gave them victory.

Bobby Fulham, Micky Green, Paul Ashton and Joe Jacobs all squandered excellent chances for Chadderton.

Chadderton reserves beat AFC Liverpool 2-1 at Broadway, Daniel Shaw and Carl Taylor on target.