ATHERTON LR travelled to previously unbeaten Stocksbridge Park Steels end came away with a tremendous 1-0 victory.

"The game was always going to be tight," commented assistant manager Peter Lee. "Whilst they have been unbeaten, they have drawn five games which tends to indicate they don't give much away. We had played very well at Curzon in midweek but conceded three goals to go down 3-2 so we decided the important thing was to keep it tight.

"Andy Hills made a couple of good saves but other than that they didn't threaten too much. Mark Stewart scored for us on 65 minutes when he fired into the bottom corner following Steve Gavin's backheel. Really after that we controlled the game and were well worth the three points."

The top of the Unibond First Division clash saw second placed Radcliffe Boro go down 1-0 at home to leaders Lincoln United.

Club official David Johnston said: "It was a tremendous game and well worthy of being a top of the table clash.

"They got the vital strike through Anthony Simmons on 59 minutes. It was end-to-end and fiercely contested but certainly not a dirty game.

"Lincoln were positive in front of goal so deserved their win. In fact, but for our keeper Andy Johnston it would have been a lot more. He pulled off several great saves, including coming out on top in three one-on-one situations in the first half." The game was watched by Radcliffe's best crowd of the season, 270.

Atherton Colls' Steve Coffey was the victim of an horrendous injury in the 3-0 defeat at Eastwood Hanley.

The former Bolton Wanderers YTS and LR player fell awkwardly and was left screaming in pain. Joint manager Steve Walton explained: "Steve fell badly and we knew straightaway that something serious was wrong. His whole leg was twisted the opposite way to his body."

He had dislocated his hip and was operated on virtually immediately at the Stoke Hospital. Doctors later informed club officials that if the operation had been delayed for another hour he would have lost the leg. For the record Colls fell to goals from Davies (30 mins), Walklett (57) and Maher (79) and Walton's partner Ian Lamb was shown a red card.

Daisy Hill crashed out of the FA Vase in a 4-0 defeat at NWCL Division Two pacesetters, Haslingden.

Manager Jimmy Hulton said: "I told our lads that if they left Jimmy Clarke on his own for just half a second he would score and that's exactly what happened. A blink of an eye just before half time and we were one behind. They scored three more in the second half but they were awful goals for us to give away. We hit the bar twice but were always second best."

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