West Cheshire League

Chester Nomads ended the year in style with a superb 3-1 victory at West Cheshire League Division One table-toppers Rainhill Town.

Nomads headed to Merseyside on the back of a 3-1 reverse at home to Rainhill two weeks earlier - and with a severely depleted squad.

But with veteran player-manager John Cadwallader producing a superb performance after dusting off the boots, that did not stop them from recording one of the results of the season so far.

Cadwallader opened the scoring before Sam Manton bagged a brace as Nomads moved within four points of the top four going into the winter break.

Improving Upton AA lost another close contest, this time 2-1 at second-placed Mossley Hill Athletic, with Steve Rowlands offering their reply.

Helsby were well beaten, 4-0 at home by Heswall.

Sam Spidgeon was the five-goal star as Upton AA Reserves romped to a 7-0 success at home to Helsby Reserves in Division Three.

Nathan Mapletoft and Mike Murray were also on target.

Mark Rennie reduced the arrears for Chester Nomads Reserves in their 4-1 home loss to Redgate Rovers Reserves.

Chester & District Sunday League

Tom Sheridan single-handedly fired FC Blacon to a vital 5-2 victory at Upton Youth Centre in Chester & District Sunday League Concorde Trophies Section A.

Jack Crossan put winless Upton in front but, by the point he notched his second goal of the game, the contest was already over.

That was because hot-shot Sheridan had netted five times for Blacon with four of his efforts coming in the second half.

Westminster will start the new year with a five point lead at the top after winning 12-1 at Axis United, for whom Mark Ashbrook hit a second-half consolation.

Carl Frost (6), Luke Edwards (3), Chris Yew, Danny Page and Carl Ngiam did the damage.

Sutton Casuals moved into second spot with a 8-0 success at home to St Theresa’s given to them by a double hat-trick from Nile Mulrey and single strikes from Matty Cavanagh and Lewis Phelan.

Tarvin Rex slipped from the Section B summit after being held to a 2-2 home draw by Handbridge Lions.

Robbie Plank and Dan Evans were on target for Tarvin; Oli Hughes and Tom Berry for Handbridge.

The Cat took over pole position with a 5-1 win at Dee Rangers in which Chaney Lloyd took his tally for the term up to 24 with a brace of goals.

Ryan Pleavin, Jason Farley and Jamie Easton also got on the scoresheet for Cat with Dowi Adamson reducing the arrears for Rangers.

Spital Vaults moved within one point of first place after Charlie Jones, Joe Muir and Jack Grimes saw them to a 3-2 victory at Holdi.

James Doughty struck with 10 minutes left to play to seal a 4-3 win for Custom House at Tattenhall.

Tattenhall twice led through Collen Mutete and then looked to have earned a point after Dell Ambrose equalised following Alec Hutchinson (2) and Gabor Pall strikes for Custom.

Sam Moore made it 19 goals for the season after he converted an 89th-minute penalty to earn Groves Athletic a 3-2 success at Waverton.

Josh Leech put Waverton in front and restored parity when he headed home a Steve Finlay cross after Tom Douglas and Paul Gates scored for Groves.

Saughall Colts Stripes Under-10s are celebrating great Chester & District Junior League cup wins over Tarvin Blues and Ellesmere Port Rovers. Back from left: Dan Columbo, Jack Johnson, Michael Shorthouse, Sam Clarke and Ethan Roberts. Front from left: Jacob Daniels, James Chamberlain, Sam Murphy, Conor O’Cleirigh and Joel Collins

Chester & Wirral League

Newton Athletic booked their place in the quarter-finals of the Chester & Wirral League Dee 106.3 League Cup with a hard-fought 6-2 success at AFC ESSAR.

Tom Vickers and Stuart Clarke had given the Olympic Trophies Division One leaders a fighting chance but goals from Lewis Davenport and Dan Christian, followed by a brace apiece for Mark Moorefield and Ben Woodman, saw Newton safely through after extra-time.

They are joined in the last eight by Cestrian Alex and Christleton Celtic.

Cestrian (Adie Gough 2, Elliot Davies, Mark Blake) won 4-2 at home to FC Uber (Aaron Rowlands, Paul Joyner) while Christleton (Cal Bratley 2, Aaron Hinchcliffe) were 3-0 winners at home to MBNA.

Chester Nomads 3rds (Joe Collins) suffered a shock 3-1 home loss to New Ferry Rangers (Lee Doyle, Luke Cassidy, Adam Bagley).

Queensferry Sports Premier Division pacesetters Birkenhead Town (Mike Parnell 3, Chris Hughes 2, Kevin Oats) won 6-2 at home to Ellesmere Port (Graham Davidson 2).

Ellesmere Port Town Reserves (Jack Walker 2) went down 5-2 at home to Franklyn’s (Ross Henderson, Nannah Eneh, Tony Lampia 3) while Lewis Trodden earned Shaftesbury Youth a 1-0 victory at Higher Bebington Kelma.

Matt Sharp (3), Ash English (2), Adam Roper, Andy Johnson, James Hewitt and Josh Hassildon did the damage for Hoole Rangers in their 9-1 win at Whitby Athletic in the last 16 of the Devaprint Cayzer Shield.

Clubbies (James Lehman 3, Kevin McGovern) progressed with a 4-2 success at Princes Villa (Kyle Huish, Lee Huish) and they were joined in the quarter-final stage by Chester Argyle (Cam Black 3, James Pemberton 2, Zach Caverney) after their excellent 6-3 win at home to Ellesmere Port Reserves (Connor Perrin 2, Matty Keyhoe).

Orange Athletic lost 7-2 at Overpool Athletic (Andy Merner 3, Nathan Brown, Liam Pilkington, Anthony Cox, Jamie Ranford) while Elton Athletic (Adam Brawn 2) were beaten 4-2 at St Saviours (Carl Ngiam 3, Liam Wall).

Dan Higginson (3) swept Sutton Athletic to a 3-1 victory at home to Neston Nomads (Luke Moore).

Upton JFC will also be in the hat for the quarter-final draw after their opponents, Upton Rangers, failed to raise a side.

Two games were played in the Tarvin Precision Vets divisions.

In section A, Dave Swayne hit a consolation for Frodsham Park Vets as they lost 7-1 at Blacon Youth Vets, and in section C, Neston Nomads Vets (Richie Deponeo, Paul Knowles) won 2-1 at home to Avenue Vets (Chris McGinn).

In the Friday Night 11s, CBP FC are now second after beating Countess of Chester 1-0 thanks to a Simon Cook goal.

In the night’s other match Ashton Phoenix edged out M&S Bank 3-2.

Cheshire League

Malpas made it three wins from their last five Cheshire League Premier Division matches with an impressive 3-1 victory at Rylands.

Pavel Abramowicz (2) and Harry Cunningham got the goals for Malpas.

Tarporley Victoria lost 2-1 at home to Division One high flyers West Didsbury & Chorlton Reserves.

Welsh Premier League

New assistant manager Steve O’Shaughnessy felt Airbus UK Broughton deserved more in their heartbreaking 2-1 defeat at Bangor City on Saturday.

The young Wingmakers, whose line-up had an average age of under 21, thought they had ended their long losing run when Liam O’Neill opened his account for the club.

But, deep into injury-time, Anthony Miley volleyed home to ensure Bangor, for whom goalkeeper Connor Roberts starred, snatched the points.

O’Shaughnessy, who has left his role as director of football at Bala Town to join the coaching team at Airbus, said: “The lads worked hard during the game but overall I was disappointed not to get the points.

“We were definitely worthy of the three points, if you watched the game you’ll know we should have won, so it was smash and grab really.

“There was plenty of energy in the team, the lads gave 100%, that’s all you ask, the only downfall was we didn’t put our chances away.”

The Wingmakers then suffered their eighth successive defeat in all competitions when they went down 4-2 at home to second-placed Bala on Tuesday.

Airbus led through James Murphy and then the returning Tony Gray.

But they failed to make the most of their opportunities thereafter, with Jamie Menagh and O'Neill seeing good openings come and go, and they were duly punished by Bala.

The rock-bottom Wingmakers host third-placed neighbours Gap Connah's Quay on Boxing Day (1pm kick-off).