QUIETLY but confidently is the traditional Atherton Town way of doing things. Lead by example and don't go blowing your own trumpet until you have a tune worth listening to.

Steadily but surely this season manager Shaun Lynch and his team have been getting things together and the club has never been better positioned as the halfway stage approaches for an all-out tilt at the Manchester League Premier Division championship.

Last Saturday the winning sequence continued with a comfortable 2-0 away win at Failsworth Town which leaves manager Lynch smiling as he sees his side fifth in the table, 13 points adrift of clear leaders Wythenshawe Amateurs but with five games in hand.

After a goalless first 45 Town came out in the second half with all guns blazing. The opening goal owed much to quick thinking by Barry Atkins with a swiftly taken free kick for Leighton Packaging man of the match Phil Hornby to convert at the second attempt as his first shot was saved by the keeper.

The killer second goal came as Daniel Christie made the keeper pay for a poor clearance and left everyone for dead showing great control before blasting it home. The key in any title race is to look for weaknesses and Town don't appear to have any chinks in the armoury. Home form is good, away form is even better. In Hornby and Christie, Lynch has the most potent strike duo around - in the Manchester League or any other - but goals can come from many sources in this team. All these ingredients need for a winning recipe is a sound base and that they most certainly have. Last weekend saw the eighth clean sheet in 12 games and only eight goals have been conceded in the process.

With a defence as tight as the fastening on secretary Gerald Butler's wallet it's no wonder Lynch is smiling from ear to ear!

What is a surprising disappointment at the club at the moment is the form of the Reserves who have slipped to third in the table behind New Mills and Breightmet United. Last weekend they went down for the second consecutive week with Alan Shawcross the scorer in a 3-1 shock home defeat by Springhead.