Barnton 7 Rochdale Town 1

A HAMMERING of their visitors on Saturday saw Barnton make it 13 goals scored against Rochdale Town in their past two outings.

Despite going behind, Leon Knight’s side recovered to top the six they scored against the Lancashire outfit last time out.

It send the mid-Cheshire side back to the top of the North West Counties League First Division.

Barnton missed early opportunities to take the lead at Townfield, before the visitors opened the scoring when Jason Hill headed home a deep free kick.

The away side's lead lasted a matter of minutes however, and it was Ryan Malone who provided a pin-point delivery for leading scorer Kev Towey to nod in an equaliser.

Five minutes before the break the pair combined again to give Barnton the lead as Malone fed Towey, who jinked inside two challenges to smash home from the edge of the box.

Knight's side continued to dominate after the interval but it took until the hour for Malone to set off on another of his mazy runs, check inside and smash past the Rochdale keeper.

The wide man then made a clever pass to Danny Laverty, who delivered an unselfish square ball to Jason McShane to thump home for his 10th of the season.

Laverty swung in a corner for Pollard to finish from close range, before a cross from subtitute Chris Lomax was knocked down by Laverty for Liam Crellin-Myers to tap home with his first touch of the ball.

Barnton still had more in the tank though, with Lomax jinking past his marker and sending a cool finish beyond the keeper to delight boss Knight.