ATHERTON LR, now certain to finish in the UniBond Division One bottom three, picked up a second successive home draw against top opposition.

That 3-3 result with Droylsden was followed on Saturday by a 2-2 draw with third-placed Lincoln United.

But a season of severe disappointment for manager Dave Morris hit a frustrating low just 15 minutes into the game.

He was red carded for a comment made to the referee and the club's most successful manager was forced to watch the rest of the game from the crowd.

Club secretary Steve Hartle said: "What Dave had to say would have been allowed to pass in 99 out of 100 games, but unfortunately not this time. We would have settled for a point before the game, but we played so well that in the end it was a disappointment."

Neil Moss scored both goals for LR on 27 and 52 minutes with Lincoln keeper Mark Welch producing a world-class save on 35 minutes to deny Lee Cryer.

Darren Royle was asked to play at centre-back rather than his accustomed striker role and looked an absolute natural in an outstanding display. Unfortunately he was injured on 70 minutes and had to be substituted. Lincoln capitalised and drew level through Rick Renshaw (72) and Brian Butler (80).

Cryer, Darren Winward and Daniel Christie all went close for LR in the dying moments.

ATHERTON COLLS went down to a single goal defeat at Mossley in the NWCL Division One despite playing well for long periods of the game.

LATEST results from the Atherton Charity Cup comp:

Atherton Town B 5 Leigh Athletic 2, Atherton Colls Vets 0 Hindsford Youth 0 (Youth win 2-0 on penalties), Walkers AFC 2 Pennington 2 (Pennington win 5-3 on penalties), Atherton Colls B 4 Howebridge B 2.

Second round - May 4: Bulls Head v Union A.

Quarter-finals - April 28: Pennington B v Atherton Town A (Alder House, 7.15pm); April 29: Punch Bowl or Hindsford Youth v Howebridge A or Hindsford A (Atherton Town); May 1: Church Inn or Union B v Atherton Town B (Alder House, 7.15pm).

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