Lewis On Sport

Magnificent Darwen smash relegation-threatened Ashton Town

Darwen smashed Ashton Town 7-0 to move up to eighth in the NWCFL Division One North on Saturday afternoon.

An incredible first half with four goals from Leon Creech on his return to The WEC Group Anchor Ground saw Darwen go in 5-0 to the good at the break.

The visitors did improve in the second half but the damage had already been done, and a high-in-confidence Darwen added a further two goals to round off the rout.

Darwen took the lead with less than 20 seconds gone, thanks largely to a mistake from Ashton keeper James McClenaghan who completely miscued a pass out from the back. Leon Creech intercepted, and slid the ball into an unguarded net.

On eight minutes, it was two. Creech showed great composure to take it round McClenaghan and slot home.

Just after the quarter-hour mark, the Lynch brothers almost combined to give Darwen a three-goal cushion, with Anthony coming agonisingly close to diverting a dangerous-looking cross from David on the left-hand side.

The Salmoners dominated the opening 20 minutes, with the visitors failing to pose a threat to Lenny Fieldhouse’s goal.

It wasn’t until the 24th minute that Conor Ready registered Ashton’s first effort on target of the match. A tame effort from just outside the area was comfortably stopped by Fieldhouse.

At the other end, Creech intercepted another loose ball in the Ashton back line before skipping past McClenaghan and smashing into the back of the net to complete a first-half hat-trick. 3-0.

Minutes later, Rio Wilson-Heyes added a spectacular fourth. The winger was allowed time and space to shoot from around 30 yards out and the ball flew beyond McClenaghan. Superb. Darwen were running riot, again.

Incredibly, Darwen weren’t done scoring for the first half, as Creech latched on to a through ball and swept into the bottom right corner to add a fifth. 38 minutes gone.

Just before the interval, The Reds twice almost put themselves six to the good.

First, Creech almost lifted a ball over McGlenaghan after the ball broke to The Salmoners’ talisman on the edge of the area.

Then, a real pile-driver of a strike from David Lynch deflected and almost found its way into the top left-hand corner. The midfielder was denied by the upright.

HALF-TIME: DARWEN 5-0 ASHTON TOWN

SECOND HALF

It looked for a second as though the visitors were going to claw one back when Fieldhouse came rushing out to clear and cannoned off Ready and towards Darwen’s goal. Town’s number 9 gave chase but the ball rolled out for a goal-kick.

Wilson-Heyes burst down the right and searched for his second of the afternoon. The Reds’ number 11 jinxed back and forth in the area and ended up doing too much, he was dispossessed, and the chance was gone.

Fieldhouse then produced a strong stop to deny substitute Emini Adegbenro a consolation goal for The Town.

Ashton enjoyed their first real spell of possession of the game and applied some pressure during the first 20 minutes of the second 45.

But Adegbenro’s chance was the only one with note to come from this period in the match, and Darwen were soon back in the ascendancy.

In the 77th minute Wilson-Heyes megged the Ashton keeper after a brilliant solo-run down the left-hand side.

The Reds’ next attack saw the offside flag stayed down for Anthony Lynch to make it 7-0 after Ryan Steele flicked the ball into his path. 80 minutes on the clock.

The sixth and seventh goals really nipped any sort of Ashton resurgence in the bud, with The Salmoners thoroughly controlling proceedings in the game’s closing stages.

Seconds from time, an audacious effort from David Lynch struck the crossbar from 40 yards. This really would have been the cherry on the cake had it gone in.

FULL-TIME: DARWEN 7-0 ASHTON TOWN

The referee’s whistle brought to an end what had been an fantastic afternoon for Kenny Langford’s men. The Salmoners will now look forward to another home game against Cleator Moor Celtic on Wednesday.

THE TEAMS

DARWEN

STARTING XI

1. Lenny Fieldhouse

2. Ryan McKenna

3. Anthony Lynch

4. Samuel Holt

5. Nathan Bond (C)

6. Martin Middlehurst

7. Jack Lynch

8. David Lynch

9. Leon Creech

10. Ryan Steele

11. Rio Wilson-Heyes

SUBSTITUTES

12. Matthew Johnson

14. Sandro Da Costa

15. Kian Sharples

16. Ben Langford

17. Stefan Holden

ASHTON TOWN

STARTING XI

1. James McClenaghan

2. Alex Davies

3. Adam Morris

4. Kevin Pollard

5. Adam Chippendale

6. Steven Hoy

7. Ben Glendon

8. Luke Edwards (C)

9. Conor Ready

10. Thomas Grindrod

11. Dylon Meredith

SUBSTITUTES

12. Connor Brown

14. Brendan O’Brien

15. Daniel Clarke

16. Scott Burton

17. Emini Adegbenro