Baldwin leads Chaddy rout

CLOSE CONTROL: Ged Grimshaw, of Chaddy End, is monitored by Royton Athletic's Michael Garrett.

Chaddy End FC 4, Royton Athletic 1
FOOTBALL: TWO divisions separate these two sides in the D & J Builders (North-West) Ltd Oldham Sunday League, and at times it showed as Chaddy End FC progressed to the third round of the President's Trophy at the expense of Royton Athletic.

Ryan Baldwin's hat-trick — all of them well-taken strikes — was the highlight of top-flight Chaddy's success in what was a fairly one-sided affair.

Athletic, of Martin Buckley Division Two, notched a solitary goal but it proved little more than a consolation, coming as it did in the 36th minute when Danny Wilkinson fired the ball home after Nick Kirk's free-kick rebounded to him off an upright.

Even so, Wilkinson's effort brought his side level after Athletic had fallen behind to the first of Baldwin's efforts — a delightful 20-yard chip — in the 20th minute.

The Chaddy ranks could have been forgiven for reacting with a little trepidation after that, given the side's unusually poor start to the league season.

But Kyle Harrop had the perfect antidote a minute before the break when he slotted home a Tom Hughes pass from 10 yards.

Baldwin made it 3-1 six minutes after the restart when he got on the end of a punt forward before firing home.

Credit to Athletic at that stage as they continued to fight for everything and really made a fist of this tie.

The last action of the game saw Baldwin get his treble with a 12-yard volley.

Chaddy manager Danny Dorward said: "We've struggled so far this season in the league due to key players being missing, but this was a comfortable win for us.”