Atherton LR bowed out of the Lancashire Challenge Trophy at the second-round stage to an unforgiving Ashton Athletic side who won 6-0 at Crilly Park on Tuesday night.

LR had an initial setback before a ball was kicked with a stadium ban being enforced on manager, Dave Jones, after receiving three yellow cards - and his presence was missed on the touchline.

Ashton from the get-go were the dominant side against a somewhat lacklustre LR, however some goalkeeping heroics by Charlie Burgess kept the hosts in the game.

The Yellows were eventually able to break through in the 41st minute, a quick break down the left wing by Jack Smith granted him space to launch a ball into the box which was nodded in by Deklan Hill to provide a deserved first-half lead for the visitors.

Coming back from the break, many hoped it would be LR’s turn to put pressure on the visitors.

However, after only a minute of play Emmanuel Ujahchuku turned inside a disorganised LR box and laid off Smith who converted the chance.

Ujahchuku would add a third for the visitors in the 52nd minute after some expert pressing provided him with the option to cut deep in the LR box and receive a fantastic cross by Jamie Nicholson to place the ball beyond Burgess.

The Yellows then had to weather a 15-minute spell of LR pressure for the first time in the game, however it was deemed too late, as in the 75th minute, with space at the edge of the box, Smith would launch a rocket that curled expertly into the top-right corner to make it four for the visitors.

Nearly 10 minutes later, in the 83rd minute, Smith completed his hat-trick after another quick counter-attack provided a two-on-one situation which was converted with ease.

The final nail in the coffin was sealed in the closing minutes when Nathan Baca added to the misery and placed a low driven shot into the bottom left corner to make it 6-0.

A disheartened Gareth Flitcroft could not hide his disappointment in his overview of the game.

The assistant boss said: “There were a lot of things I was disappointed with tonight, I think the reaction in the second half after the third meant we didn’t really get back into the game.

“We lost balls in areas where they would punish us.

“Credit goes to Ashton Athletic. I thought they were very good tonight, very efficient, very ruthless.”

LR return to NWCFL First Division North action on Saturday when they host Darwen at Crilly Park (3pm).