Barnoldswick Town 1 Congleton Town 3

BARNOLDSWICK Town's game at Bacup & Rossendale Borough last night took on extra significance after this home defeat.

Barlick were level on points with the hosts going into it, with both of them teetering just above the North West Counties League Premier Division relegation zone, and it was a game the visitors could ill afford to lose.

Once again the home side had players missing against Congleton, Aaron Hollindrake, Carl Ellerton, Joel Melia and Scott Byrom being out through Injury, suspension or personal reasons.

Even so, the squad was fairly strong and there was a fair amount of optimism from the home side's management.

The game started well for Congleton as Scott Sephton forced Chris Taylor into a good save on five minutes but a bad mistake in the visitors' defence in the 16th minute let Harry Thompson in.

He forced the ball past Congleton keeper Craig Ellison, leaving himself with an easy tap-in.

The lead didn’t last long, however, poor defending allowing Ryan Allcock to equalise after 23 minutes.

Barlick were forced into a substitution two minutes later, Mark Threlfall being replaced by Chris Simpson, who headed over a half-chance after 39 minutes.

But Congleton went straight on the attack and more dreadful defending let a Congleton player in on goal.

Shaun Airey, chasing back, brought him down from behind and the referee dismissed him and pointed to the penalty spot, despite players and spectators who were adjacent to the tackle insisting it was outside the area.

Barlick felt that justice was done when Taylor dived to his left to tip the ball away from the foot of the post, thus denying Congleton’s top scorer Scott Barlow.

Taylor again saved well from Barlow at the start of the second half, but the home side had to make another substitution, with Liam Hoyle replacing Martin Broderick.

On 54 minutes, Town fell behind when Paul Walker was too easily robbed of the ball, allowing Daniel Ellis to score, though they scorned the chance of an equaliser four minutes later when Simpson couldn't get his shot away under pressure after Kieron Lee had slipped him through.

Congleton went further ahead after 68 minutes when Barlow drove the ball home from the edge of the area, and Taylor had to make good saves from Chris Middleton, and Allcock chipped over when in a good position. In contrast, Ellison was only dealing with shots from outside the area.

* Barnoldswick Town's reserve side went down 3-1 at Peel Park in Lancashire League East.

The kick-off was delayed due to the late arrival of the match official, but Town were 2-0 behind inside 15 minutes.

When the visitors sorted themselves out, they were denied a couple of first-half penalty claims.

A 65th-minute own goal made it 3-0 but Aidan Lee did convert a penalty ten minutes later and Park had to defend admirably in the final 15 minutes.