MARK Denham climbed off the bench in the second half to score two goals, maintain his side's unbeaten run, but most important, secure a win which leaves Stand firmly at the top of the table.

And while STand enjoy the heady heights of being in pole position, their visitors Castleton were suffering at the other end of the table, but for almost nearly an hour it was difficult to distinguish the two sides at different ends of a division.

It was also clear to see that the Rochdale side had made wholesale changes from two weeks earlier when Stand had comfortable won, maybe that win was in their minds when the match kicked off and soon found out that the visitors, prompted by player-manager Tom McKenna, were going to be no pushovers and after 10 minutes the first warning shot was fired over the Stand bow when when an under hit back pass from Dave Channon was latched onto by Castleton's forward Dave Butterworth who accepted the gift given to him by slotting home the ball past a bewildered Tommy Allen.

This obviously stirred the home side and three minutes later Chris Denham's darting run saw him upended in the visitors box for a penalty, the young striker pulled himself up to convert the spot kick.

This quick reply should have knocked Castleton ambitions for six, but they still staked a claim to the Lions' share of the first half, but it was still Stand who had the best c hances, two of them falling to Stuart Telfer, his first effort crashed against the underside ov the visitors crossbar, his second missing the bar by a bigger distance. Even so the interval left both sides on an equal footing.

Dave Channon opened the second half with a glancing header slamming the Castleton crossbar, that was quickly followed by seeing Micky Bartholomew break clear onto Neil Dawes through ball only to see the STand forward miss-hit his shot, but it was a sign of the game beginning to see the home side take a firm grip and then while a goal seemed to be looking a bit elusive, on came substitute Mark Denham. A marvellous bit of pace and movement between Denham and Steve Carroll saw Denham break clear in the box to toepoke the ball past Darren Ford in goal, to put Stand in front.

Then what followed was a made five minutes, Chris Denham clashed with goalkeeper Ford who threw a punch at Stand's forward, he rightly was sent on his way, the skirmish then boiled over as Ford made his way, we saw Steve Carroll get involved and his apparent punch saw him march off just as quickly. But as soon as the game settled down Mark Denham raced on to Allen's long clearance helped on by brother Chris and made no mistake again to push the game out of Castleton's roach. However, his brief appearance was stopped a minute later hwen he had to limp off with a damaged ankle in scoring the goal but he had been on long enough to make an instant impact and seal a victory in a game which was a good example of not taking a team's position lightly, but Stand still had enough to get the points.

Stand hope to maintain their run and could even strengthen their lead at the top with the division's biggest game of the day when they visit Formby.

Saturday's hero Mark Denham should be fit, b ut problems at the back still remain. Centre half Dave Channon looks certain to be out with a hamstring injury while Stand's other centre half Steve Davis still looks doubtful so a reshuffle will have to be done again.

RESULT: STAND ATH 3 CASTLETON GABRIELS 1