ATHERTON COLLS team boss Alan Lord successfully managed to negotiate the dreaded NWT League manager of the month award!

He took the prize before his team went out to show all the reasons why he had won the nomination in the first place.

Their 3-0 success against Kidsgrove put the skids under the league's standing joke that whoever wins the award then sees his team get battered.

Not this time as the Alder House lads turned on the style to shatter their Potteries visitors.

All three goals came in the opening half with the magical Colin Lomas the orchestrator.

The midfielder glided by four defenders to pull the ball back for Luke Hardman to slot home, then burst through again only to be pulled down (Mark Parry slamming in the penalty) before finally rounding off a superb display by setting up Hardman for the third.

The second half never quite matched the heights of the first, with Colls still having the upper hand but unable to add to the score.

The Reserves drew 2-2 at Glossop. ATHERTON LR's survival hopes took another blow when they crashed 4-1 at Maine Road.

This time it was a case of starting brightly and running out of steam.

Steve Plant's side controlled the first half-hour and took the lead when Mike Read, set up by Jimmy Flood, chipped the keeper from the edge of the box.

"From then on in it was all downhill," moaned Plant. "They made us pay for slack marking on the half hour and got another just before the break."

The Reserves won 2-0 against Newcastle Town.

LEIGH ATHLETIC fell to their third straight defeat, a 2-1 home loss to Bury GSOB.

Steve Hilton had a fine game between the sticks on his return to first team action, Danny Wilson had a superb game and scored Athletic's reply.

DAISY HILL lost 1-0 at home to Bacup Boro. "We created enough chances but didn't finish," said team boss Brian Richardson.

The club will be staging a Millennium five-a-side comp on May 21 for players aged 11-14. Entry is £10 per team (squads of up to seven, 16 teams per group). Entry forms from Brian Smith on 01942-516767.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.