South Lakes 5 Leyland and Chorley 2

SOUTH Lakes recorded their second win of the season to move within two victories of escaping the Northern League Division Two North West relegation zone.

Building on their 6-6 draw with Lytham St Annes a week earlier, Holly Nuttall added to her hat-trick with a brace, with Cat Cooke also scoring two and Rebecca Cook one.

Leyland started hard, controlling most of the possession but being unable to gain anything from it.

South Lakes began to settle into their game and, within six minutes,were awarded a short corner.

Cook injected the ball to the top of the D to Lesley Davey, who took a strike slightly wide of the goal, allowing Cook to put a touch on it to score the first.

This gave Lakes the confidence they needed and captain Nuttall played in Emma Armstrong, who dribbled to the right of the D and crossed for Pam Robertson. Her shot was deflected by the keeper, but Cooke picked up the loss ball to score the second goal with only 10 minutes of play gone.

The hosts continued to pass well and, despite Leyland trying to put them under pressure, defenders Hannah Swainson, Rebekah Nuttall and Davey cleared the ball with ease.

Rebekah Nuttall passed the ball out to Sarah Robinson, who played some neat one-twos with Robertson and Lois Viney.

Viney found Angela Thornton, who played the ball into the D on to a defenders foot.

Lakes were awarded another short corner and Cook injected the ball to Robertson, who played wide to Holly Nutall, whose strike deflected off a defender. Cooke managed to get the ball and scored Lakes' third, with the score staying at 3-0 until half-time.

After the break, the home side fought to get the ball, and Robinson, Viney and Thornton worked hard to drive up the left.

The ball was played to Holly Nuttall, who dribbled around two players and shot past the keeper for 4-0.

Leyland fought hard and managed to get the ball into the South Lakes D, a shot on goal produced a top-drawer save from Joy Heighton, who pushed it wide for Swainson to clear.

They continued to pressure and, despite Heighton saving again, were awarded a penalty stroke from which they made it 4-1 on 47 minutes.

The visitors fought for another goal, which was scored three minutes later in open play.

But South Lakes had not given up and a pass from Cook on the right found Armstrong. She used her speed to dribble the ball to the Leyland goal and found Holly Nuttall at the top of the D. She wove through and scored the final goal of the game.

South Lakes host Liverpool Sefton on Saturday, looking to build on their recent form.