ATHERTON LR 3 CURZON ASHTON 2: ATHERTON LR completed a seven day league and cup double over Curzon Ashton...and amazingly the two meet yet again tomorrow night in the UniBond League Challenge Cup first round.

Rovers are now in the third qualifying round of the FA Cup for the first time ever and will face old rivals Bamber Bridge at Crilly Park on Saturday, October 12.

The latest victory for Dave Morris' side in a nine-game unbeaten run appeared to be coming at a canter with Lee Cryer completing his hat-trick early in the second half.

Suddenly the foot was off the pedal and two goals from the visitors had the nerves fluttering.

A stunning opening 20 minutes gave LR the perfect start. A 75-yard run from Mattie Brookes and inch-perfect pass set up Cryer for his first on 10 minutes and on 16 a great pass over the visitors' defence from Steve Iley put him in for this second. His third on 53 minutes came courtesy of some slack defending from a Mark Stewart free kick.

Curzon, who hit back through Ian Street on 62 minutes and Malcolm O'Connor on 83, never seriously looked like taking it to a replay. A bad day all round for Ashton was compounded when defender Francis Hyland was red carded for speaking out of turn as the players trooped off.

RADCLIFFE BORO 1 WORKSOP TOWN 1

RADCLIFFE Boro's six-game winning sequence came to a halt as visitors Worksop pushed Kevin Glendon's men all the way.

In a first half packed with good flowing football from both sides, and it took a strike from an usual source to earn a share of the points for Boro.

A superb cross from Ian Lunt on 59 minutes saw fellow striker Joe Connor bang in a rare headed goal. This cancelled out Harris's 23rd minute tap-in after good work by Kenny Clark. Worksop were hit on 71 minutes when Brookes, having already been booked, was sent off for an off-the-ball incident with Lunt.

Midfielder Tony Camilleri made an excellent debut for Boro.

ATHERTON COLLS 6 DARWEN 1

ATHERTON Colls have threatened to take opponents apart with their attacking flair this season but up until Saturday it hadn't happened.

Suddenly everything clicked into gear and Steve Walton and Ian Lamb's side banged in half a dozen quality goals against hapless Darwen.

Tony Pemberton had an excellent game for Colls in his last appearance before moving back to his old club LR.

New signingfrom Great Harwood,Paul Rigby, scored two on his debut. Graham Dodd topped a stunning display with two, leaving Neil Higgins and Rob Hilton to round off the scoring.

Two goals in the last 11 minutes saw Jimmy Hulton's Daisy Hill come back from 3-1 down at Oldham town to earn a share of the spoils in a cracking 3-3 draw. Barry Lowe cancelled out a 25th minute Oldham opener with a fine goal on 40 minutes. Town opened up a two-goal cushion on 70 and 77 minutes, only for Mike Craig (79) and Roy Litherland (87) to earn Daisy a well deserved draw.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.