Frickley Athletic 3 Lancaster City 2 LANCASTER'S new signing Kevin Barnes - who arrived at Giant Axe just last week - may leave before he ever plays for the club.

The striker played for Blackpool reserves this week and it turns out the league club have had their eye on him for some time.

But the chances are that City fans will still have the chance to check out the new signing at Saturday's rearranged home match against Emley.

Meanwhile manager Alan Tinsley is frustrated that his side managed to score twice against Frickley and still lose.

He said: "We've been saying that the problem is scoring, well we scored twice on Saturday. That said I felt happier about our performance and think we can get a win on Saturday at Emley. Mark Thornley will be definitely back and there's a chance we'll have Trainor and Diggle back. They both played in a training session and came through so there's a chance, only a chance, that they'll play."

Those midfielders would certainly make a difference and you felt that if Lancaster had a full team out at Frickley they certainly would have won this game.

In fact stand-in keeper Andrew Casson (Thornley was ill) had a good game and had no chance with any of Frickley's goals, two of which came in a first half dominated by the home side.

Stuart Gelling pulled a goal back with a quite superb strike five minutes into the second half. He volleyed from the edge of the area and the ball flew into the back of the net. It seemed odds on that Lancaster could at least force a draw from this match until Frickley scored from a good volley of their own just after the hour mark.

Tinsley brought on both Stuart Parkinson and Graham Taylor for Paul Crompton and Steve Longworth and City gave it all they had to score. The pressure paid off when Jay Flannery headed home and Lancaster had a good penalty shout turned down in the closing stages.

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