Atherton LR suffered just their second defeat of the season at the hands of Ashton Town to exit the Macron Cup in the first round on Saturday.

LR had the opening chance as a lofted cross from the right by Owen Green was nodded towards the net by Lewis Adams, however some goalkeeping heroics from Ashton’s Connor Eastham saw him lean back and tip the ball away.

An early onslaught by Ashton allowed them to counter with some chances of their own and despite the torrid conditions, they capitalised on LR’s poor start with high presses, one of which resulted in a corner which was floated past the box and knocked forward into the path of Connor Brown who placed the ball past Bickerstaffe to give Ashton the 29th-minute opener.

LR showed their resolve with some quickfire counter attacks to grab an equaliser. A Dave Moore clearance was forwarded to the path of Tom Romano, and with space and time on his side, he was able to divert the ball home to level the scores in the 44th minute.

Ashton dug deep in the second half and despite LR’s continuous efforts to grab the late goal, all efforts were in vain.

A late goal was brewing, though - the question was who would grab it? Ashton were the ones with the answer as a fantastic run through the middle by Brown allowed him the space to launch a through ball to Kyle Preece who sent the ball past Bickerstaffe to send Town into the next round of the Macron Cup.

LR boss Dave Jones expressed his disappointment but also stressed how pleased he was with the team’s resolve.

He said: “I thought we were a bit slow in the first half, it’s fine margins, a second phase into the box that we’ve got to do better on.

“The lads gave everything in the end, and I’ve just said in there (changing rooms) we’ve lost a game of football against a very good side, we’ve gone 11, 12 games unbeaten, that happens, that’s life and you dust yourself down now and get back on with it.”

Jones’ side host Atherton Town in a friendly at Crilly Park tonight (7.30pm).