TEMPEST United continued their good form with a satisfying 3-1 win at home to local rivals Turton.

Nathan Monson’s double, with Jordan Coop hitting a stunning third goal, gave the hosts victory although they were thankful a missed penalty by their opponents did not set up a frantic last 10 minutes.

It was their sixth win in the last eight games and Tempest assistant manager Gary Westhead felt they were good value for their victory.

“It was just a really good performance,” he said. “I think Turton had seven or eight players missing, but we had a few out ourselves, we had four centre-halves playing across the back four. We believe we have quite a strong squad though, anybody who comes into the team does a job and we don’t feel weakened.

“We started the game quite well, as we have done in a lot of games so far this season, and Nathan gave us the lead early on. We’ve been hitting the ground running a lot and getting at teams early doors.

“Sam Parkinson set Nathan up for his second after they had equalised and it was tough going in the second half, they were definitely on top early on, but Jordan scored a great goal, he found the top corner from 25 yards and that gave us a bit of breathing space.

“It could have been trickier at the end, Turton had a penalty with about 10 minutes to go but, fortunately for us, they hit the bar. It would have been really heavy going if he’d made it 3-2.”

Tempest held out against Turton’s late rally and sit fifth in the West Lancashire League Premier Division table. Although they are nine points behind early pace-setters Blackpool Wren Rovers, they have two games in hand, having had a two-week lay-off earlier this month, due in part to a tragic loss at Tempest Road.

“Our opponents called one of the games off, the other we called off after Paul Jones died,” revealed Westhead. “He was a really popular ex-player who was on the committee and helped out with the reserve team.

“He died on the Friday and we were all in shock, he was only 55, so we called off our games the following day. Hopefully, Saturday’s result will have made him smile.

“It’s pleasing to win any game but especially when the opponents are a very good team and your local rivals so we’re happy with three points. Hopefully, we can take our form into the next fixture, another derby at CMB in the Lancashire FA Shield. It’s another tough fixture but we’ll look to progress and get on a roll.”

While Tempest prepare for that fixture, Turton boss Neil Hart is hoping he can welcome back some of his many absentees when his seventh-placed side host Southport Hesketh in the league this weekend.

“We’ve picked up a lot of injuries as well as having three lads away on a stag do last weekend so we’ve been a bit bare,” Hart said. “We don’t seem to get a week when we have just two or three missing, it’s nearer to eight or nine each week.

“In that sense it’s testament to the squad that we’ve accumulated the points we have so far.

“That said, we’re not going to make excuses for Saturday, the truth is we were beaten by the better side, they were physically stronger, so you have to say fair play to them.

“We conceded some very poor goals from our point of view and Tempest didn’t have to do anything out of the ordinary.

“We still felt we had put out a side that was strong enough to get a result but we didn’t do the basics right, didn’t win enough first or second balls, didn’t track our runners, didn’t stay switched on and weren’t strong enough at set pieces.”

It was a mixed afternoon for Turton’s stand-in skipper Luke Bradbury, who scored their equaliser in the first half and was the man fouled for his side’s penalty late in the game, which he stepped up to take but his spot-kick thudded against the crossbar.

Not that Hart will lay any blame at his feet, adding: “Luke was manhandled for the penalty and he was very good all-round for us. He led by example, we just needed some more to have matched his attitude.

“Fair play to him for putting his hand up and taking responsibility for the penalty, he tried to go with power but just got under it a bit.

“I’m not going to get on at him, he led a team full of 18, 19 and 20-year-olds well. That penalty would have made it an interesting last 10 minutes but in all honesty 3-2 would have flattered us.

“We have made a decent start on the whole, and we don’t want that to go to waste so we’ll look for a reaction against Southport Hesketh this Saturday.”

Elsewhere, Eagley won their third game in a row, beating Crooklands Casuals 4-1 in Division One. Bailey Wallace scored twice, with Jon Stevenson and Phil Eastwood also on target.

CMB drew 1-1 at home to Milnthorpe Corinthians, thanks to Matthew Chapman’s goal, and they stay just ahead of Stoneclough, who were beaten 5-3 at Lytham Town.

In Division Two, Ladybridge lost 4-2 at Walney Island.