With the 1st team successfully avoiding relegation the focus was on the reserves who entered their last league game requiring at least a point to obtain promotion to the top reserve division.

Terry Meadows men had drawn 2-2 away at Burnley United during the week knowing they would probably need to win this and their remaining game at Bolton County to be crowned as champions. However dropping these two points let in neighbours Burscough Richmond who duly won their remaining match at Milnthorpe Corinthians to clinch top spot with the reserves needing at least a point to claim the runners-up place ahead of Poulton who had finished their fixtures.

Things didn’t start well at Bolton with the home side going into an early lead but the reserves hit back to go into the interval leading by the odd goal in three. With news filtering through that Burscough had won having kicked off 45 minutes earlier this relaxed the team and they went on to run out comfortable 6-1 winners with two goals each from Josh Brierley, Abdulla Ahmadi and leading scorer John Ascroft.

The first team sent a patched up team to Lostock St. Gerards for their final league game and finished up losing 4-1. The home side took an early lead but Jake Connolly equalised after 33 minutes. The game turned a minute before the interval when Neil Hulme sent 16 year old Omar Deriye clear and he beat the keeper only to see the ball hit the inside of the post and roll agonisingly along the line. Within seconds Lostock increased their lead to 3-1 at the interval and then scored again early in the second half.

Despite this defeat six wins from their final ten matches moved them up to third off the bottom of the table in a remarkable turnaround master minded by manager Shadab Iftikhar more commonly known as Evergreen. After the turmoil of last season’s double winning team breaking up it proved to be a satisfying end to the season with the first team retaining their Premier Division status, the reserves winning promotion for only the 2nd time since the club joined the West Lancashire Football League since becoming members in 1987 and the Sunday team finishing as champions of their division for the second consecutive season.

Hesketh Bank AFC

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