North Lancs Football: McMinn inspires Galgate to cup win

Galgate got off to the perfect start when they took the lead in the opening two minutes, a lofted pass from the half way line from Geoff Wilson found Will Onek who out jumped the defenders to send a looping header over the keeper and into the net.

In the 30th minute Trimpell were awarded a free kick just outside the penalty area and Aidan Dunphy beat the defensive wall to find back of the net.

With three minutes of the first half left Trimpel shook Galgate by taking the lead with a good Ryan Cunningham goal after some good build up play down their right wing.

Galgate drew level after 70 minutes when Tom Eccles stole the ball off a defender just outside the six yard area, turned and his shot beat the keeper who was unsighted.

Five minutes later a left wing cross found Onek and his header looked to be going wide until Lee Clarke’s intercepted header found the back of the net to put Galgate back into the lead.

Trimpel were then awarded a free kick just outside the penalty area, Chris Murphy’s effort was going wide until it took a deflection and went into the net, giving the keeper no chance to take it to extra time.

With just three minutes of the first half of extra time remaining Steve McMinn beat the offside trap and coolly put the ball wide of the keeper from 10 yards to put Galgate into the lead.

With five minutes of extra time remaining Galgate were awarded a penalty for a blatant push in the back on Lee Clarke. McMinn took the penalty and scored with ease.

In the Baines Bagguley Penhale North Lancashire Football League Premier Division; bottom team College AFC travelled to play Bowerham, another team at the wrong end of the table, in what was virtually a six pointer as the visitors came away with a 5-1 win.

The game was evenly poised at 1-1 with Joe Bouskill having scored for Bowerham and Eric Bradbury for College, but Bowerham were then reduced to 10 men when they had a player sent off which changed the whole game.

College, with a player advantage, raised their game and soon opened up a lead which they held, finally running out 5-1 winners after Josh Dixon, Kyle Lewis, and Callum Crookes scoring twice.

College emerged as the better side and the win moves them off the bottom and are replaced by Trimpell and Bare Rangers.

The match of the day was between second placed Carnforth Rangers and third placed Caton United.

The match was quite even throughout with Damien Murphy scoring for Carnforth and a Sam Kirkby penalty equalising for Caton.

The last 10 minutes of the game were the best part of the match as both sides threw caution to the wind in an attempt to grab all three points but at the end a draw was a fair result.

The one point gained leaves Carnforth three points behind leaders Galgate but with two games in hand with Caton a further one point adrift, also with two games in hand.

Ingleton appeared to be coasting when they opened up a 4-0 lead over Storeys after Alex Hartley (2), Aaron Woodhouse and David Easterby had scored.

Storeys came to life in the second half and played as well as they have done all season and pushed Ingleton back onto the defensive.

David Whitelaw scored from the penalty spot to give the score line some respectability but Storeys deserved more for their late rally.

Morecambe Royals’ results are getting worse as the season marches on and at present are fourth from bottom and in danger of relegation.

They struggled in the first half against a Bentham team that have only lost once so far this season but still created two excellent chances to have taken the lead. They played much better in the second half but still got caught out when a left wing cross from Jordan Armstrong found Thomas Burns whose close range header flew into the net to give Bentham the lead that they deserved.

Bentham sealed the win in the 75th minute when a looping header from Ryan Preston found the back of the net to make it 2-0.

In Division One, the top two teams both won, Mayfield beat Grange 6-0 thanks to goals from leading scorer Daniel Martin (4) and one each from Peter Myerscough and Anthony McCluskey.

Swarthmoor Social Club entertained lowly but improving Bolton-le-Sands, and were 2-1 winners thanks to two goals from Graham Wilcox.

Bolton-le-Sands’ solitary strike was scored by Callum Mulholland as they now lie third from bottom.

In Division Two of the North Lancashire Football League, second placed Boys’ Club s lost two valuable points in their quest to gain promotion, drawing 4-4 against lowly Morecambe Royals Reserves.

Although the better side throughout Boys’ Club could not shake off a determined Royals steam that never gave up and were always in with a chance of getting something out of the game. Matthew McGowan, James Short and Jack Braithwaite (2) were on target for the Boys’ Club with Jamie Burrows, Tom Conroy, Chris Morrow and the equaliser from Jack Rawlins replying for the Royals.

James Eccles scored four times for Marsh United Reserves in their 5-2 win over TIC Dyn/Overton/Middleton Reserves, George Neil scored the other. TIC’s goals were scored by Andrew Thirlwell and Piotr Popiarski.