Clayton Park Rangers U14s 7

Briercliffe Celtic U14s 5

CLAYTON Park Rangers Under 14s and Brierfield Celtic Under 14s played out an incredible 12-goal, top-of-the-table thriller at Memorial Park.

Second-placed Celtic went in to the game having scored 58 goals in their previous eight Accrington and District Junior Boys League outings while Rangers, one place behind with games in hand, had scored 30 in six matches.

So a high-scoring encounter was always on the cards - and so it proved.

It was end-to-end action at the Great Harwood venue as the match ebbed and flowed with both teams looking for the victory to put the pressure on Under 14s White division leaders Padiham FC Juniors.

Celtic, who went ahead in the fifth minute, led three times only for Rangers to power back on each occasion and led 3-2 at the break.

Briercliffe started the second half strongly, scoring twice only to be pegged back again. Rangers then went ahead with a disputed penalty and, with Celtic chasing the game, they stretched their lead to 6-4.

But in a grandstand finish, Celtic pulled one back thanks to Hamas Asif’s superb 20-yard effort but Clayton, inspired by hat-trick heroes Bilal Ali and Brad Boyer, scored again to seal a memorable victory.

Chuck Rooney also scored for Rangers while Kamal Ajaz’s treble for Celtic was all in vain with Abdullah Aslam also on the scoresheet.

n Clayton Park Rangers: Lucas Egan-Toner, Luca Rigby, Liam McDonald, Zhuoxuan Zhu, Deacan Haighton, Nathan Loudon, Marcus McGrory-Thorpe (Captain), Paddy Radigan, Bilal Ali, Chuck Rooney, Brad Boyer

Subs: Medley Felix, Tom Kell, Joe Mercer

n Brierfield Celtic: Gabriel Miszech, Stuart Moorhouse, Ben Livingstone, Freddie Fitzpatrick, Ali Khan, Ariyaan Bashir, Kamal Ajaz, Abdullah Aslam, Mohammed Redha, Hamas Asif, Shahyaan Imran.

Sub Ishmail Adams.