Royton hold champions

ROYTON Town shrugged off problems to earn an excellent 2-2 draw at champions Manchester Gregorians in the Manchester League premier division.

The management team was away on holiday, the regular goalkeeper was unavailable and Town had only two substitutes, one of whom was injured.

But Town turned in a gritty display and took the lead after 15 minutes when Will Mellor marked his debut by rounding off a fine move.

Ten minutes later, Tom Dale made it 2-0 after beating the offside trap, but Gregorians halved the deficit on the stroke of half-time.

The champions levelled just after the restart when they scored from the penalty spot after Christian Fraser was sent off for a foul.

However, it was ten-man Town who could have snatched a winner, Jason Titterington (twice) and Michael Moss going close.

Midweek action saw Royton and Hollinwood battle out a 1-1 draw in the local derby.

AVRO made a flying start as they beat Wythenshawe 4–2.

They were two goals up inside ten minutes thanks to Lee O’Brien and Paul Armstrong and it got better before the interval when O’Brien added his second.

The visitors fought back strongly in the second period to reduce the deficit to 3-2 before the decisive moment of the match saw a well-worked free kick between Armstrong and O’Brien set up Martin Barnes-Gott for AVRO’s fourth goal.

AVRO followed up with a 4-3 midweek win over Dukinfield Town, James Hampson scoring twice and the others coming from Martin Barnes-Gott and Lee O’Brien.

The reserves started with a good 4-0 away victory at Beechfield.

SPRINGHEAD’S good start came to an abrupt halt as they lost 2-1 at home to Elton Vale.

Behind after just 30 seconds, Springhead were further adrift inside 20 minutes following another defensive error.

They also lost Ben Fletcher to injury, subsequently diagnosed as a broken ankle which will keep him out until the New Year.

The local side gave themselves a lifeline when they were awarded a penalty five minutes before the break which Stevenson despatched.

However, they could not grab an equaliser and had a let-off when Elton Vale missed a second-half penalty.

Despite missing several regulars, Springhead bounced back in midweek to record their third win in four games - a 2-0 home success against Hindsford.

In a well-contested match, Springhead finally made the breakthrough after 70 minutes with a neat finish from Dean Jackman who then settled the issue ten minutes from time with his second goal of the game.