Bamber Bridge 0 - 3 Farsley Celtic

Bamber Bridge suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of table-toppers Farsley Celtic in all all-roses clash at the Sir Tom Finney Stadium.

A goal in the opening exchanges and two more in the second half ensured Adam Lakeland’s men took all three points.

Both sides knocked the ball around nicely in the opening stages on a pristine pitch as they looked to settle into the game.

As expected, the league leaders grew into the game and on 15-minutes they came close to opening the score.

Chris Atkinson crashed a volley off the underside of the crossbar, before Dave Syers fired narrowly past the right-hand post.

However, when the next chance fell to Farsley’s No.10 Cartman, he made no mistake with a composed curled finish that flew into the top right corner.

Brig didn’t let that goal affect their desire though and they kept probing for an equaliser, which almost came after lovely work from Adam Dodd down the left.

Heroic defending saw Farsley throw bodies in front of three successive goal-bound strikes, first from Matt Dudley and then from Ali Waddecar and Darren McKnight.

Waddecar was again in the action as half-time approached.

Brig set off on another counter attack with Dudley, who held the ball up before feeding it wide to Brig’s No.7, whose vicious first-time shot shaped just wide of the mark.

The hosts came out and looked lively once again, but on 56-minutes they were landed with the sucker-punch as Farsley broke and added a second.

Ben Atkinson played a long ball over the defence for Spencer, who ran into the box before cutting inside and rifling home.

The home side continued to probe but Farsley’s stubborn back three stood firm in defence of their two-goal cushion.

Matt Lawlor went not too far away for Brig with 75-minutes gone, but the captain’s volley from inside the box skewed off target.

And the away side rubbed salt into Brig wounds moments later when Cartman added his second and Farsley’s third following a scramble inside the six-yard box.

That proved the last piece of action on an afternoon to forget for Micky Taylor’s men.

Match reporter: George Hodgson (@GHodgsonSport)