Last updated at 13:19, Tuesday, 08 December 2009

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WEST LANCS FOOTBALL

Hawcoat Park 3 Croston Sports 1

WITH Kevin Murphy in great form, Hawcoat Park chalked up a very comfortable victory over Croston Sports in West Lancashire League Division One.

While the conditions were fairly heavy underfoot after all the rain, Hawcoat didn’t make heavy weather of their victory.

The game was goalless at the interval, but Hawcoat had been on top all the way, twice having shots cleared off the Croston line and a Murphy volley hitting a post.

Not surprisingly, it was man-of-the-match Murphy who opened the scoring.

Taking the ball down the left wing, he rounded the full-back on the by-line.

His angle seemed too narrow for a goal, but he somehow managed to squirm the ball under the keeper and into the net.

Sean Paterson then had a shot deflected home for a second and Murphy opened the way for a goal from Liam McNulty – Hawcoat netting three goals in 10 minutes to ensure they sealed all three points. The Croston reply came late on from the penalty spot, but it was mere consolation for the visitors.

“It was just what we needed,” said Hawcoat manager Grant Cumberbatch, whose side now sit fourth in the table.

“It makes such a difference when we have four of our main men – Scott Ellis, Andy Hill, Darren Greig and Gregg Sharp – all available at the same time.”

The only blot on the Hawcoat performance was the sending off of midfielder Ellis.

“It was something of a nothing incident,” added Cumberbatch.

“It was supposed to be for using the elbow, but no-one saw it apart from the referee.

“I think it was a wrong decision and we hope to get it rescinded.”

Hawcoat Park will be hoping for another top-drawer performance this coming Saturday when they meet table-toppers Fleetwood Hesketh.

Hawcoat Park: Stuart Houston; Chris Hill, Darren Gregg, Gregg Sharp, Mike Melia; Trevor Houston, Scott Ellis, Andy Hill, Kevin Murphy; Sean Paterson, Liam McNulty. Subs: Danny Graham, Carl McKay, Stuart Knagg.

First published at 12:57, Tuesday, 08 December 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk