North Lancashire League: Carnforth crash back down to earth in cup semi-final

Despite missing several key players Carnforth also had the misfortune to have to start and play the opening 20 minutes with only 10 players.

Despite the handicap Carnforth played quite well but once Cartmel went into a 2-0 lead the game was virtually over as a contest.

The game did not live up to expectations after Cartmel gained the upper hand to run out 3-0 winners with goals from Matthew Burrows, Joel Drinkall and Adam Harding.

In the final at Giant-Axe on April 20 they will meet Ingleton.

In the Baines Bagguley Penhale North Lancashire Football League Premier Division, Marsh United travelled to Ingleton hoping to get the one point they need to avoid relegation.

Although they started well it didn’t last.

Once Ingleton got into their stride there was only going to be one winner.

Ingleton opened the scoring with a Dave Easterby goal and this was soon followed by further goals from Aaron Woodhouse, Joe Towers and Daniel Tyrer.

Marsh did manage a deserved consolation goal scored by Phil Mason.

Storeys and Trimpell and Bare Rangers, both at the wrong end of the table, met for the second time in a week.

Storeys did most of the early attacking in the first 20 minutes but it was Trimpell who took the lead following some poor marking by the Storeys defence which allowed Aidan Dunphy to score from close in.

Storeys continued to have most of the possession and created some chances, one chance in the 30th minute brought out a great save by the Trimpell keeper and two minutes later made an even better save to deny Storeys.

The second half saw Storeys with the wind at their backs increase the tempo but with chances being wasted with shots going well over the bar or well wide it looked as though they would never score.

In a rare attack Trimpell increased their lead after 57 minutes when again after some poor defending Tony Turner managed to score through a packed defence.

Despite going further behind Storeys had one thing on their minds and that was to attack.

In the 70th minute the Trimpell keeper who was turning out to be the man of the match made another good save at the expense of a corner.

The corner was swung over into the centre of the penalty area where the ball was met perfectly by the head of Airey but again the keeper pulled of a brilliant save to deny Storeys.

Another rare attack from Trimpell almost made the game safe but this time it was the turn of the Storeys keeper to pull off a smart save.

Storeys, urged on by their new manager Jason Conroy, threw everything at Trimpell in the last 15 minutes but due to some bad luck, some good defending and some poor shots at goal they just 
could not hit the back of the net.

In Division One, the match of the day turned out to be between leaders Swarthmoor Social Club and Heysham. Graham Wilcock put Swarthmoor ahead and Nathan Adams then made it 2-0 soon after.

However, Heysham responded and scored a well deserved goal scored by Martin Mayers and leading scorer Jamie Shuttleworth then made it 2-2.

Swarthmoor then started to lose control of the game and two more Heysham goals scored by Dan Johnson and a second for Shuttleworth really put them onto the back foot.

In the 83rd minute Swarthmoor received a lifeline when a mix-up in the Heysham defence allowed Ricky Gallagher to score to make it 4-3, and with the last kick of the game up popped the man of the moment Graham Wilcock to score what could be the goal that wins them the title as he made it 4-4.