North Lancs Football - Arnside hold pole position in title race (From The Westmorland Gazette)

North Lancs Football - Arnside hold pole position in title race

10:21am Thursday 21st April 2011 in Sport

ARNSIDE remain favourites for the First Divison title after a stunning 8-2 victory over Morecambe Royals Reserves on Saturday.

Beaten by Royals a few weeks ago, Arnside were shaken when they conceded twice with Kieron O'Connor and Nathan Watts givcing the visitors a 2-0 lead.

Matthew Smith pulledo ne back before half time, but it was a different Srnside after the break as their fast, open football brought them seven more goals with Smith notchign a hat-trick and five others on the scoresheet in James Thornton, Dave Parson, Luke Gorst, Steve Pearson and Adam Richardson.

Cartmel Reserves did Arnside a favour, too, with a 1-0 defeat of third-placed Trimpell thanks to a Billy Garnett strike.

Ingleton Resereves looked certain for the drop after a 3-3 draw with third-from-bottom Bolton-le-Sands did nobody any favours.

Nathan Jackson bagged two of Ingleton's goals with John Kelsall on target, while Sands' scorers were Alex Batson, Aaron Topham and Daniel Dixon.

In the Premier Division, leaders Highgrove beat Cartmel more convincingly than the 2-1 score suggests with Dena Richard scoring for the losers, but the crunch match for the winners comes against second-placed Bowerham/Furness United this sAturday.

Second Division champions Grange kept their unbeaten league record when ending on a hig note with a 3-0 win at Highgrove Reserves.

the goals came from Jamie Saunders, Matthew Dean and Ryan McKenny.

Kirkby Lonsdale Reserves need to win all of their last three games to avoid relegation after a 4-1 defeat by Overton and Middleton, their soolitary goal coming from Grant Troughton.

Ingleton can look forward to a cup final after a 6-2 semi-final win over Pendle Renegades in the Craven FC Morrison Cup.

Man of the match Dave Easterby led the way to goal with a hat-trick and other strikes came from Robert Baker, Danny Murray and Alex Hartley.