Atherton Collieries 1, Elton Vale 1 (Colls 7-6 on penalties AET) Goldline Trophy.

ELTON put up a brave fight in the quarter-finals of the Goldline Trophy before being dumped out on penalties by their North West Counties League opponents.

Manager Stef Shaw asked his players for that extra concentration and effort required when a side is branded as the underdog.

In the next 120 minutes, the crowd were entertained to a highly competitive game and Elton can come away with their heads held high knowing that they had given everything that the manager had asked of them.

The sides came off the pitch at 10.40pm knowing that the better side had not got the semi-final spot.

The Elton side played some good football throughout with a 4-5-1 formation that allowed them to get the ball wide in possession.

Atherton did take the lead with a complete fluke from a Mark Prince miskick, which thumped into the ground before looping over Phil Kenyon's head. This only turned out to be a key for more effort from the black and blue stripes marshalled from midfielders Lee Dickinson and Stuart Stott who battled for everything.

And, it was Stott who put the two sides level on 65 minutes when he headed in a Carey corner.

It looked as though there could only be one winner, but Colls did come back and were always dangerous from set pieces where they had several inches advantage in nearly every position.

Full time and extra time came and went with no addition to the scores, and penalties loomed.

Elton gained the advantage as Kenyon saved the third effort. The compulsory five finished at 4-4.

Sudden death provided a winner as Elton's eighth kick was well saved. The culprit? there wasn't one, it was a team which went out and a team that sat down to contemplate after the game, they all shared the glory and the sadness, (and the cold showers!).

The reserve side got back to winning ways with a 4-1 victory over Dukinfield Town, scorers were Kenyon, Slavin, Jackson and Greenhalgh.

On Saturday the first team is at home to Stand Athletic and the reserves travel to Leigh Athletic, both games start at 2.30pm.

l Vale progressed to the next round of the Lancashire Amateur Shield when they beat Lancaster City Council 6-1, the goals coming from Dave Malius (2), Dave Berry (2) and Tom Stubbs (2).