ASHTON UNITED 2, LANCASTER CITY 4
Ashton United suffered a third straight defeat as their poor recent run in Northern Premier League, premier continued.
Visiting forward Charlie Bailey settled the issue at Hurst Cross with a first-half hat-trick in front of 301 fans.
With the Dolly Blues’ fans in fancy dress, something of a pantomime followed in the home defence as seven minutes in a through ball saw Bailey sidestep the defence for a neat low finish.
The lead was doubled after 14 minutes when Sam Bailey’s pass to the edge of the area found his namesake turning to finish in the bottom corner.
James Baillie, starting at right back, had already overhit a cross which glanced away off the crossbar and Nathan Lowe dragged his effort past the near post following an exchange with Harry Bunn.
In between the goals, Bradley Carroll should have done better than miss the far post after David Norris played him in on the right side of the area.
Just before the half hour, Sam Bailey’s great cross-field pass saw Norris blocked out close in from Karl Brownhill’s cross but a minute later the Robins found a lifeline as Nathan Lowe curled a free kick in at the near post after Jason Gilchrist had been fouled.
On the stroke of half time, Lancaster restored their two-goal lead as a quickly taken throw in saw Norris’s fierce shot palmed out by Tom Scott for Bailey to volley home his third goal.
Matters got worse for the Robins as four minutes after the break Brownhill’s deep cross reached fellow full-back Sam Bailey who fired home with the aid of a slight deflection.
Ten minutes later the scoring was completed as Gilchrist provided a neat finish after Keilen Adams had won the ball from a long clearance.
Substitute Dom Lawson then just missed the angle for Lancaster following a clever backheel from the by-line by Charlie Bailey and Gilchrist fired a decent chance wide after Lonsdale’s long clearance.
Gilchrist again could have reduced the deficit as his far post header bounced over the bar from Lonsdale’s free kick and the action finished with Lawson bringing another good save out of Scott following a free kick.
Report: David Robinson.