Home comforts for happy Emley
EMLEY put five past Steeton to keep their North West Counties First Division North title bid on track at the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground.
After four matches on the road, a Rob Bordman brace together with goals from Dominic Riordan, John Cyrus and Jimmy Eyles, gave the Pewits a 5-1 win.
Riordan opened the scoring for Emley just five minutes before half-time as he headed home a Tom Claisse corner.
Then in first-half injury time, Steeton conceded a free-kick and Bordman’s sweetly-struck shot rocketed into the top right corner.
Steeton pulled one back through Luke Baldwin four minutes into the second half, putting a shot
Ashton Town ......................................... Chadderton ........................................... AFC Blackpool ...................................... AFC Darwen ........................................... Nelson ....................................................... Bacup Borough ................................... Cleator Moor Celtic .......................... Garstang .................................................. Atherton LR ........................................... St Helens Town ................................... Steeton .....................................................
over keeper George Clarke who was left rooted to the spot.
The game began to degenerate into an unnecessarily scrappy affair, best summarized by a booking for Steeton’s keeper for a shove on Bordman when the visitors had already won a free-kick.
Cyrus extended Emley’s lead in the 68th minute, meeting a Claisse cross with a pin-point header to put an end to the match as a contest.
Bordman grabbed his second goal on 73 minutes, which in contrast to his first-half screamer was not the cleanest of strikes but it somehow found its way over the line.
Emley brought Tom Rose on for Alex Metcalfe and Nasim Kherbouche replaced the excellent Cyrus. But Emley weren’t yet done. One neat move broke down and there was a chance to add a fifth, were it not for the feet of Steeton’s keeper.
However, he would still have to retrieve the ball out of his net a final time as Eyles showed tenacity right until the end, turning in a shot from the left at an acute angle in injury time.