Lancaster City 2 Ashton United 1: Goals at last for Dolly Blues

Dan Cowan's misdirected back-pass with 20 minutes to play at Giant Axe lifted Lancaster into the top half of the NPL Premier Division and avenged Ashton's FA Cup win on the same ground at the end of September.

Jacob Holland-Wilkinson had opened the scoring for the Dolly Blues two minutes before half-time, volleying home after the visitors from Ashton-under-Lyne had failed to clear a corner.

It was the first Lancaster goal in well over 400 minutes of football since beating Morpeth Town 3-2 three weeks earlier.

The home side had started brightly, Andrew Teague heading wide from Sam Bailey's long throw and Jake Connelly forcing Ashton keeper Tom Scott into one of numerous saves.

The closest the visitors came to scoring in the first half was when Andre Mendes saved with his feet from Alex Byrne and Mitchell Rose fired the rebound over.

However, Ashton were level within three minutes of the restart, Sean Newton volleying home from Byrne's pass.

But Lancaster looked the more likely to find a winner, Sam Bailey twice testing keeper Scott and then crossing for Teague to head just over before Cowan's fatal error.

The win lifts Lancaster to 11th ahead of Saturday's trip to struggling Marske United, while Ashton slip out of the top five.

Jamie Mellen continued his comeback with another appearance off the bench, while goalscorer Holland-Wilkinson was named man of the match.

That goal will have come as a great relief to manager Mark Fell, who bemoaned his team's misfortune in front of goal after Saturday's 0-0 home draw with FC United of Manchester.

Fell told the club's media team: “That was a much better performance and no-one could have complained had we won 1-0. We're crying out for Nic (Evangelinos) to come back but that probably isn't going to be until Christmas

“It's still early enough in the season for us to start bouncing up the league. We've lost one league game here but it's our away form we have to deal with.”

Lancaster: Mendes, S Bailey, Brownhill, Teague, Grand, Carroll, Sloan, Connelly, C. Bailey, Holland-Wilkinson; Subs: Clarke, Mellen, Norris, Gallagher-Allison, Lawson.