Lancaster City 3 Radcliffe 1 THE champagne flowed freely at Giant Axe on Saturday as Lancaster City finally clinched the championship and promotion.

The players paraded both the Unibond First Division trophy and the Unifilla First Divisional Cup in front of more than 500 fans after a fitting 3-1 win over Radcliffe Borough.

That win, the Blues 25th consecutive unbeaten game, was sealed by half-time and the Blues started the scoring in the eighth minute when Steve Trainor headed home a Mark Shirley corner.

John Coleman thought he'd added the second five minutes later only for the linesman to rule him offside. But the super striker did hit the second after 23 minutes, Dave Sharples finding him with a superb chip and Coleman doing the rest with his head.

In-form Coleman got his second and city's third on the stroke of half-time. Stuart Diggle was brought down in the box and Coleman lashed home the spot-kick with his usual aplomb.

City struggled to maintain their excellent level of performance in the second half as Radcliffe began to play themselves back into the game.

Mark Thornley made a couple of outstanding saves and was unlucky to be beaten after 78 minutes when the ball bounced off him to Ian Lunt who finished off the rebound. The final whistle sparked scenes of jubilation and captain Jay Flannery raised City's first championship trophy for 60 years.

TEAM: Thornley, Curwen, Flannery, Hartley, Dullaghan, Shirley, Trainor, Sharples, Diggle, Coleman, Borrowdale. SUBS: Gelling, Chilton, Key.

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