THACKLEY were left to fly the flag for the local clubs in the Toolstation Northern Counties East League as all of their counterparts suffered heavy defeats.

The Dennyboys were the only one of the area’s four clubs playing away but they returned from Barton Town Old Boys with all three points from a 3-1 victory.

Mark Trueman opened the scoring and Mike Garrod doubled the visitors’ lead before the interval. Barton hit back through Sam Belcher in the second half but Garrod restored the two-goal cushion from the penalty spot after he had been pulled down in the area two minutes from time.

Premier Division rivals ALBION SPORTS were beaten 3-0 at Throstle Nest.

Gary Ricketts scored the only goal of the first half as Heanor Town took a slender lead into the break.

A three-minute brace from Courey Grantham saw the visitors canter to victory over a reshaped Albion.

Boss Kulwinder Sandhu said: “We started alright but went 1-0 down after about a quarter of an hour, then we dominated for a good 25 minutes.

“Heanor were the better side on the day but an error at the back and a wicked deflection helped them with their other two goals.

"About 60 per cent of our team were new and it will come together but not overnight. Brice Tiani was away and we missed someone like him in the centre of the park.”

ECCLESHILL UNITED had a day to forget in Division One as they went down 6-0 at home to Louth Town and finished the game with nine men after picking up a red card in each half.

SILSDEN’S excellent start in the North West Counties Premier Division ground to a halt at Congleton Town.

The Cobbydalers had won both of their opening two matches and at 2-0 in the 44th minute they looked like making it a hat-trick. However, they conceded an unnecessary free-kick on the stroke of half-time that Town’s Paul Hudson converted and that gave the home side the lift they needed.

Dale Feather scored the opener in the 17th minute and just after the half-hour mark Nicky McNally doubled Silsden’s lead.

After Hudson had given the home side hope going into the break Lewis Killeen levelled just over three minutes into the second half.

A Nick Rogan penalty and a Chris Middleton header saw Congleton to a deserved win.