Lancaster City 2, Atherton 0: Dollies stretch unbeaten run

Matty Clarke, Ackeme Francis-Burrell and Jake Connelly came into the starting line-up and Lancaster soon began to threaten.

Simon Grand continued his fine start in a Dolly Blue shirt with his second goal of the season, bundling an effort in after Atherton failed to clear a cross from the right on 12 minutes.

Lancaster remained in control as Brad Carroll delivered a cross in from the right but Nic Evangelinos just couldn’t connect cleanly.

Sam Bailey crossed the ball low into the box, and the defence managed to clear.

The visitors had been comfortable for the first 20 minutes but were called into action defensively when Grand did well to clear a low cross from Mwiya Malumo.

A few minutes later, the Dollies were back threatening the Colls’ goal again. Sam Bailey cut out a clearance to set up Evangelinos, whose shot from a tight angle forced a good save from Nico Hansen.

Atherton then had a brief spell of pressure themselves, their best of the game. Jordan Scanlon forced a great save from Andre Mendes, then the rebound from Ben Rydel was blocked and bounced over.

City had another good chance on the stroke of half time. Jake Connelly made a terrific run and shot from distance but Hansen saved.

Lancaster continued to be the better side in the second half. Christian Sloan fed Evangelinos, who couldn’t keep his effort down.

Dom Lawson came on for Connelly and immediately put pressure on Hansen, who scrambled the ball away. Josh Askew tried an effort from distance for the hosts, which Mendes just about kept out.

Sam Bailey delivered an inch-perfect cross towards Brad Carroll, who was deemed to have been fouled as he tried to latch onto the delivery.

The referee pointed to the spot straight away and Evangelinos made no mistake, tucking the penalty into the bottom right corner on 68 minutes.

It was a goal Evangelinos deserved but unfortunately his game was over a couple of minutes later, when he collided with Hansen and suffered an injury.

City comfortably recorded a fourth clean sheet in six games and Carroll was ​​​​​​​awarded player of the match.