IT appears that the 'own goal' syndrome is not exclusive to the Premiership.

For the new football fad fashioned by Frank Sinclair and Jamie Carragher has caught on at youth level.

And it was Mark Bottomley who joined the most unwanted club in football when his instinctive out-stretched leg deflected the ball past the flat-footed David Jarmany and effectively settled the match.

As in most cases when you get the two best teams in the league together, it takes a moment of magic or madness to separate them.

Unfortunately for Bottomley it was the latter.

But the young centre back, who held his head in horror, can hold his head high as he recovered superbly and, had luck been on his side, gone on and got an equaliser.

Bottomley played his part in a pulsating match that was watched by Hyndburn MP Greg Pope and former Rovers star, Ian 'Windy' Miller whose sons both played in the Langho side.

And both would agree that the match deserved to be settled by a flash of inspiration rather than an unlucky own goal.

And if that was the case it was most likely to come from Eagles midfielder Daniel Harrison who bossed the centre of the park and sent in flurry of long range efforts that peppered the Langho goal.

Both keepers were called into early action when Jarmany saved from Philip Turner then Chris Todd saved from Chris Nestor.

However there was nothing Jarmany could do in Eagles next attack when Neil Robinson's hopeful shot from a corner took a wicked deflection off Bottomley and into the goal.

Naturally the goal lifted Eagles and they should have made more of a chance after good work from Robinson and Dave Walker. Then Harrison set off on a mazy only to be thwarted by a fine covering tackle by Jonathan Welch. After the break Welch went close at the other end when he headed wide after Simon Keogh floated in a free kick.

Then came the first of Bottomley's two chances to equaliser when his close range effort from an inswinging corner went agonisingly wide.

Eagles replied with a shot from Turner then Harrison went even closer with a long range volley.

As the match swung from end to end, Sam Pope caused concern in the Eagles defence with two powerful runs before Harrison was again back in the thick of the action with another stinging shot.

Langho nearly grabbed an equaliser when, after a mad goalmouth scramble, Martin Grindrod fired through a crowd of players but saw his shot well saved by Todd.

Bottomley then had another chance in the dying moments but again his close range effort went narrowly wide. By now he must have known it was not going to be his day.

Langho Juniors: David Jarmany, Mark Bottomley, Greg Whiston, Martin Grindrod, Chris Nestor, Jonathan Welch, Alex Miller, Richard Metcalfe, Simon Keogh, Mark Davies and Sam Pope. Subs: Andrew McCarthy and Joe Milligan.

Blackburn Eagles: Chris Todd, Karl Heyes, Kirti Swift, Neil Robinson, Daniel Pacynko, Philip Turner, Ben Pickup, Chris Byrne, Lee Barker, Daniel Harrison and Dave Walker. Subs: Matt Gebbi and Rick Thornhill.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.