Silsden 0 Atherton Collieries 3

THE Cobbydalers slept-walked into another heavy defeat as in-form Atherton Collieries took all three points from their visit to the Angel Telecom Stadium in the North West Counties top tier.

Silsden are on a poor run of form and have been dogged by postponements recently, but a return to home action didn’t lift their spirits ahead of Christmas. The defeat left them in 19th spot, just above the trapdoor on goal difference only.

Spokesman Jim Rosser said, “A lot of people weren’t happy because it was a disappointing performance and we didn’t have a shot on target, but we were playing the form team of the Premier Division.

“It was a heavy pitch and they a lot of experienced players and a lot more nous than the Silsden squad. We have a young side with no leaders and they were very quiet on the pitch today, there wasn’t much in the way of communication”

Atherton took an early grip on the game as they broke the deadlock in the fourth minute when Elliott Firth misjudged the flight of a long ball and Josh Messer collected it before beating Cobbydalers’ keeper Danny Thorpe.

There were a few attempts off target for the home side but nothing to threaten the visitors’ lead before the break. Atherton doubled their lead in the 56th minute with a superb goal from Gareth Peet, he gave four Cobbydalers the slip before finding Mark Battersby whose shot was parried by Thorpe only for Peet to net the loose ball.

Battersby was not to be denied his goal and he finished off a good passing move by the visitors with a little over a minute remaining.