1:37pm Saturday 27th December 2008
By Gazette Sports
CARTMEL hosted Morecambe Royals in a hurriedly rearranged game in the North Lancashire Football League on Saturday and the result was a thrilling game that the visitors edged 3-2.
Royals took the lead with Mark Murphy grabbing an opportunistic goal. Cartmel's equaliser came via a classic counter attack that saw Scott Burrow on the end of a great break.
Royals restored their lead though the excellent Gareth Holmes, but Cartmel again responded by raising their game and levelled the scores for a second time through Matthew Burrows.
With both teams looking to consolidate their point, the game went off the boil slightly but still had a dramatic finish in store.
A Morecambe cross-cum-shot in the dying moments ended with a Cartmel defender inadvertently knocking the ball into his own net for an own goal and an early Christmas present for Morecambe.
Ingleton suffered a shock 4-0 home defeat at the hands of a much-improved Carnforth Rangers side.
Ingleton started the far brighter side but struggled to transfer their dominance into goals. Having weathered the initial storm Carnforth hit back and on their first foray forward they took the lead through Danny Syson.
The goal put Carnforth in the driving seat and with Ingleton chasing the game, the visitors played on the counter and had man on the match Alec Benson to thank for a superb hat-trick to secure an impressive victory.
In Division one the match of the day was played out between promotion rivals Bentham and Slyne-with-Hest who claimed a 3-2 away win.
Bentham made life hard for themselves conceding two penalties in the opening seven minutes. Michael Denwood and Robbie Cooke duly converted leaving Bentham with a mountain to climb.
The home side did not to pieces though and got one back through the hard-working Kieron Spencer.
The goal saw Bentham find another gear and Gary Louth slipped his man to equalise.
Slyne-with-Hest pulled themselves together again and regained their lead with Paul Gill firing home to claim the points for his side.
Bottom of the table Cartmel Reserves were denied a valuable win as Storeys Reserves staged a late comeback.
Two goals from Brian Lowery and a goal each from Ian Saunders and Dan Brown had put Cartmel into a commanding 4-2 lead, with John Pedder and Paul Boyle keeping Storeys just about in contention.
With time running out Boyle added his second and David Leslie scored a late equaliser to snatch a point with a 4-4 final score.
In the Division Two Whiteside Cup, Kirkby Lonsdale Reserves turned on the style in the first-round tie as they demolished Overton FC 5-1.
Kirkby rarely looked anything but in control of this fixture and a brace from Gary Taylor and goals from Yaffa Bojang, Chad Trembe and Mark McGrotty secured Kirkby's passage into the next round.
On the league front in the same division Arnside slipped up as they were held to a 1-1 draw against a battling Slyne-with-Hest side.
Veteran Steve Pearson had given Arnside the lead only to see his goal wiped out by John Gill.
In the Division Three Fairclough/Woodruff/Parkinson/Collegain Cup Bolton-le-Sands just scraped though to the semi-finals with a 2-1 win over a good Arnside Reserves side.
Arnside belied their lowly league position to outplay their more experienced opposition for long spells, but goals from Simon Bowen and James Davies won the tie for the visitors with Andy Boyd pegging one back.
The match of the day was supposedly between Morecambe CC and leaders Bolton-le-Sands.
However, it did not turn out that way. Morecambe had an off day and Sands veteran Mark Smith enjoyed a four-goal blast with 16-year-old Nicholas Pidcock scoring the other.
Adam Nutt supplied a consolation for Cricket Club in the 5-1 defeat, which saw Sands stretch their lead at the top to ten points.
In Division 3, Burton Thistle went down to Carnforth Rangers Reserves in the local derby with goals from Nathan Downham, Stuart Thwaite, Robert Pearc and Robert Hockham for Rangers, with Louis Main on target for Thistle.
Arnside Reserves went out of the divisional cup with a 2-1 defeat by Bolton-le-Sands Reserves.
In Division Four Ingleton A pulled off a great result as they beat promotion favourites Villa Royale 5-0.
Villa were second best to the young Ingleton side with man of the match Ben O'Hagan scoring four times, a own goal from Robert Austin completed a memorable scoreline for Ingleton.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/trade_directory/