North West Counties Football League Division Two

STAND ATHLETIC...1 ALSAGER TOWN...1

TO the neutral observer, everything seemed to be fairly shared out in this match.

Latics' skipper, Steve Stott, gleefully accepted the North West Counties Second Division championship trophy from the league chairman, and Alsager got a point, which might just be enough to gain them promotion, even if it is on the back of Stand's failure to go up because of ground grading.

Both teams got a goal each, so everything ended fine, but there was an undercrrent flowing in this match. Maybe it was the fact that as Stand received the trophy, the visiting Alsager players looked on with more than a hint of admiration, or it could be because Latics were the first team not just to defeat their visitors earlier on in the season, but they also dented their proud record of not conceding a goal as well,.

On the other hand, Alsager's approach to the match appeared to be that a point was needed and the best way of achiving it was to wrestle rather than play their way to it, and it proved to be a busy afternoon for the referee.

Stand started brightly, attacking the Alsager defence. They should and could have wrapped up the points in the opening 15 minutes, Lee Wilkinson's eighth minute free kick being the nearest effort, as the Ewood Bridge side focused on hitting 100 points for season to go with the 106 goals scored, but on 20 minutes a warning was shot across the Latics' bows, when Alsager's pacy forward, Karl Bayley, broke clear only to be thwarted by Stand's Tommy Allen in goal.

Three minutes later, with the warning not heeded, Bayley broke clear again after playing a neat one-two with Dummons, and this time there was nothing Allen could do to stop the Alsager forward from giving his side the lead.

Stand rallied, Alsager began to rely on counter attacks, and sheer brute force, and a series of x-rated challenges resulted in Drumming taking no further part in the contest.

The pattern of the game was now firmly laid out for the second half and, just as Stand could have won this match in the opening stages of the first half, then so could Alsager in the second.

Brotherton missed a free header from the corner, but this was Alsager's last and only chance to really make sure of promotion.

Stand's endeavour began to expose cracks in Alsager's defence and on 64 minutes Neil Dawes' corner was perfectly met by the leaping Steve Davis.

His powerful downward, goal-bound header was somehow stopped by the Alsager 'keeper and as the ball flew up, full-back John Machin's desperate attempt to clear the ball resulted in him heading into an empty net.

Despite constant pressure the visitors held on to claim the point they had set out to take.

STAND ATHLETIC: Allen, Telfer, Massey, David, Channon (Anderson), Gallagher, Stott, Denham, Wilkinson, Hannan, Dawes. Substitutes: Rushton, Lennard.

Stand have no game tomorrow and the finale to the season is a local derby against neighbours, Bacup Borough, on Friday, May 3 (kick-off 7.45pm).

This should attract Stand's largest home gate of the campaign as Bacup look to avenge a 2-1 defeat two weeks ago.

This game is up for sponsorship, so anyone interested please contact John Barrington on 01706 821525 or 0161-205 0013.

STAND kept on target for 100 league points with a 2-1 victory over Leek CSOB at Ewood Bridge on Tuesday evening.

The visitors took the lead through Ricky Mallon after seven minutes, but two second half goals from Lee Wilkinson, the first a header from a Neil Dawes cross and the winner a long-range effort ten minutes from time, earned the Latics the points.