A STUBBORN display in Saturday's First North Western Trains Division Two clash with Squires Gate held no reward for lacklustre Colne. The hosts by no means ran the show but Denzil Hart's men struggled to make their mark on this tricky fixture.

The Reds kicked off unconvincingly as the home side quickly established themselves as the driving force. Squires Gate were creative in the build up and looked a threat in front of goal right from the opening whistle.

But it took 16 minutes for the early pressure to find a route through to Mark Canning's goal. Longworth held up a through ball from Rawson and squared the ball for Burgess to drive into the top left hand corner.

Colne tried bravely to assert their authority on the game but in truth they were never at the races.

At the other end Colne's defence was struggling to contain the lively Paul Payter and on 34 minutes he doubled Squires Gate's advantage, jinking through the shaky defence before firing past Canning.

The second half saw Colne trying in vain to spring into life. Squires Gate defended deep and put in workmanlike performances to keep the threat to a minimum. After early threats from Colne, Burgess raced through to make it 3-0 despite strong claims for offside.

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