Bibby treble gets Euxton off to winning start

Pat Bibby justified his manager’s pre-season predictions with a hat-trick as Euxton Villa cruised to an opening day win at Poulton Town.

On a day of heavy rain and sunshine across Lancashire and Cumbria, the hotshot striker bagged a treble in his side’s 5-0 win at Cottam Hall with Josh Brooks saving a late penalty to earn a clean sheet.

Manager Matt Atherton had predicted another goal-laden season for Bibby who plundered 22 goals in the curtailed 2019/20 campaign.

Matt said: “I’m delighted with the start – if you speak to any manager the first game is just about getting the three points on the board as you’re never quite sure what you will face.

“But to do that by scoring five and keeping a clean sheet is testimony to the hard work the players and coaching staff have put in over the past few months.

“By getting the penalty before half-time, it helped settle the nerves ad we were very clinical in the second half.

"Credit to our young keeper too who had to make two big saves in the last 10 minutes to keep his clean sheet.

“We know that we can only truly reflect on how we’ve started by the end of August so the lads are fully focused on what will be a difficult fixture against Slyne on Tuesday.”

Elsewhere, CMB and Thornton Cleveleys played out an early contender for match of the season with a bonkers 5-5 draw.

The Bolton side raced into a 2-0 lead early on and were coasting at 4-1 after 42 minutes - but two quick-fire goals before half time gave the visitors hope.

Thornton then snatched the lead before Rob Pennington’s side grabbed a point with a 90th minute equaliser.

Pennington bemoaned his side’s defending from set pieces – four of Thornton’s goals came from dead balls – but was proud of his team, which was missing eight players.

He said: “It was a peculiar game and we should have put it to bed much earlier to be honest.

"We also lost our captain Will Archer to broken ribs and our striker Ben Thornton also to injury so that didn’t help.

“We had so many players missing I would have probably taken a point beforehand.

"We scored some really good goals – both sides did to be fair - but I’m disappointed.

“But every credit to Thornton, they played right to the end.”

Pennington is in his fifth season as CMB first team manager and is eyeing a top five finish.

“We’ve signed some really good players and I’m excited for what’s ahead," he said.

"There’s some great teams in this league, Euxton will be up there, Slyne had a cracking win at Tempest and Fulwood will also be challenging.

“It’s just great to be back.”

Burscough Richmond and Fulwood Amateurs played out a 1-1 draw while Blackpool Wren Rovers saw off Coppull United 4-2.

Lytham Town secured a 3-0 win over Whitehaven and Hurst Green grabbed three points at Southport Hesketh winning 2-1.

Slyne had an eye-catching 4-1 win at Tempest United and Vickerstown enjoyed an impressive 4-0 victory over Turton.

In Division One, Wyre Villa are the early pacesetters thanks to a 4-0 win over Haslingden St Mary’s and Carnforth were in seventh heaven after a thumping 7-1 victory over Dalton United in Division Two.

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