Maghull 2 Colne 1

Colne had a narrow defeat at league leaders Maghull on Saturday despite taking the lead with a promising first half performance. But the Reds conceded twice in the second half when the home side came back strongly.

Colne started well with a series of good attacks and after seven minutes Miles Storey opened up the home defence with a run on the right wing and laid the ball back for Barney Wiggin to shoot low into the bottom corner of the net to give the Reds the lead.

Colne continued to attack and Jamie Walker's shot was blocked for a corner before Wiggin headed just wide from the resulting cross. And Finley Denning's shot flew just past the Maghull goal from another good chance.

As play switched to the other end, Colne keeper Harry Turner made a vital save after 13 minutes when Maghull threatened on the counterattack. Wil Hoey shot over the Colne goal from a half chance before Jacob Till forced another good save from Turner with his angled shot after 20 minutes that was pushed wide of the far post.

But Colne created the better chances and Maghull keeper Patrick McLoughlin kept his side in the game as he raced from his area to deny Storey who was bearing down on goal and then forced Wiggin to shoot wide in a similar situation.

As the second half began, Maghull pushed forward and Nathan Moffitt created chances for the home side with his runs into the Reds area. Turner punched high balls away under pressure in his goalmouth but after 53 minutes, a long cross from the left wing found Connor Rankin at the far post and he headed home to level the scores at 1-1.

On the hour, Maghull took the lead when a diagonal free kick by Levi Adebisi was headed back across goal and in off the post of the Colne goal for 2-1 to the home side.

Colne pushed forward in the last half hour in search of an equaliser and created a bagful of half chances but were caught offside on several occasions when they looked to have opened up the Maghull defence. Wiggin and Storey worked tirelessly up front helped by the introduction of fresh legs from the bench as Luke Stowe, Dan Ajidagba and Harry Lynn joined the game to bolster the attack. But a second goal for the Reds failed to materialise as Colne continued to press right up to the final whistle.