Colne are up to seventh place in NWCL First Division North as they carved out a well deserved win against Garstang at the Haffners Eats Stadium on Saturday.
Goals either side of the half time interval were enough to see off the challenge of the visitors in their first ever visit to Holt House.
In the opening stages, a brief attack by the visitors saw Zack Wilkes fire a shot inches over the Colne goal. But as the Reds took control, they built a series of promising attacks with Miles Storey and Sam Lloyd opening up the Garstang defence with some interlinking play on the left wing. And Nathan Cliffe shot narrowly wide as an inviting low cross reached him at the far post.
Colne continued to attack and the Garstang defence came under pressure and survived a series of near misses as they cleared the ball from their goalmouth on several occasions. After 33 minutes, a through ball by Paul Turner released Storey into the area and he beat the advancing keeper with a low shot inside the far post to give Colne the lead.
Garstang looked for a quick reply and forced a series of corners at the other end but the Colne defence coped well to clear the danger and with half time approaching Reds keeper Harry Turner raced from his area to clear the ball as the visitors threatened with a good attack.
Five minutes into the second half, Colne won a free kick on the left wing and Cliffe’s low shot from a narrow angle found the far corner of the net past a wrong-footed keeper to double the Reds lead.
Colne looked for more goals with Storey’s runs on the left wing and Jak McKinlay on the right creating a series of chances for team-mates.
Garstang keeper Joe Lawton saw plenty of action to keep the ball out of the net. Turner had a goal disallowed on the hour for offside and Sam Holt brought a good save from the keeper with his goal-bound shot after 77 minutes.
A late chance fell to Garstang in added time when Matthew Casson had a clear sight of goal but Colne keeper Turner made a good save to deny him and keep a clean sheet.
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