Ball’s treble helps Wardle blitz Bamber

IN last week’s fixtures, Wardle secured a 6-1 win against Bamber Town in the Lancashire FA Sunday Trophy Second Round thanks to a John Ball hat-trick.

Danny Armstrong was pleased with his side’s strong performance in the early stages of the cup.

He said: “We want to win the cup and we want to win the league, we’ve already beat some of the best teams that play in the competition.

“It’s going to be hard to challenge in both competitions this year and we also will have tough games in the league such as Rochdalians this weekend.”

Levi Simic also got onto the scoresheet for Wardle.

Armstrong said: “I believe that the depth of squad we’ve got this year will help us to challenge for both trophies.

“At the start of the season we lost a few strong players, but I feel like they’ve been replaced well by the new lads in the squad.”

Elsewhere in the RDSFL Premier Division Rochdalians have built up some strong form going into their match with Wardle this weekend, following a 6-3 win against Littleborough.

The win sees them cement their position at the top of the table above their competitors AFC Kearsley who also got a result.

Lucas Forshaw’s hat-trick fired Rochdalians into a first-half lead but was unable to complete the match due to a serious ankle injury.

Mark McCormack said: “My thoughts are with Lucas who unfortunately dislocated his ankle during the match.

“In terms of the football, we took all our chances early doors and we got into half-time at 4-1.

“I thought we would be comfortable in the second-half but Littleborough showed how resilient they are.

“We want to focus on the title this year but of course, we’re ambitious and would love a cup run.

“We have a big game against Wardle to look forward to, but we just want to take it one game at a time.”

Meanwhile AFC Kearsley also gained a credible result against Elton and Walshaw.

The match finished 5-2 to the home side, man of the match Lee Chapel was instrumental and scored a brace.

Alasdair Staley, Player-Manager Cameron Tate and Lewis Eyers all got on the scoresheet.

Tate said, “Even though I know we played well against Wardle I think today it was our best performance in the league yet.

“We went behind today but we really showed our class after that. I think as a team we squandered a lot of chances – I did! Obviously, it was nice to get on the scoresheet, but I think today it was important that we got the result.

“When we squander chances it doesn’t really matter as long as we get the three points.”

In this week’s fixtures Avenue sealed a 12-2 win over Manchester Swifts in the Manchester Brick Specialists Division One.

Anthony Heywood’s hat-trick and trio of assists helped his side to a dominant victory, which ensured Avenue are the only undefeated team in the division.

Also, amongst the goals Liam Bennion scored four to just clinch man of the match from his fellow teammate.

Adam Thomas, Avenue’s manager, said: “We started quite poorly to be fair – we were missing our captain, vice-captain and top goal scorer – so it was hard for us to get into our stride.

“When we got into our stride the football looked crisp and we kept the high press up well throughout the game, which eventual broke the Swifts down and got us the result that we deserved.

“Liam Bennion was the man of the match for his goals and his link up play.

“However, Sean Butler in the net also made some good saves, as well as Anthony Heywood who was outstanding throughout the game.

“Ryan McDowell and Chris Jones were solid also at the back.”

Avenue sit in second place but have two games in hand on the team above.