Cammell Laird 0-3 Lancaster City

LANCASTER City made it four wins out of four on Tuesday night with a consummate 3-0 victory away at Cammell Laird.

In two very different and difficult halves of football City bettered their opponents and patiently waited to press their advantage, in the end it could have been a landslide.

Goals from Ryan Elderton, a Neil Marshall header and a late strike from substitute Lee Dodgson were what they settled for and that triumvirate pleasingly made it eight different scorers so far this season for Tony Hesketh’s dangerous side.

In a first-half where the home side was content to sit deep and play off their lanky front man, City kept possession well and pushed full-backs Rob Henry and Elderton up either flank to create space and options.

It was down the right that City pressed their advantage, Zach Clark surged past the decent Shay Dysart at full-back, pulled the ball back for Alex Meaney just inside the box whose shot was clumsily saved by Phil Palethorpe in the Laird net.

City had filled the box with poaching candidates and it was Elderton who stepped in to squeeze the ball in.

Martin Fearon had little to do bar play a sweeper role for his defence who were very comfortable on the ball, his goal seldom came under threat; one occasion when it did he could have done very little about a speculative looping volley from Marc Stevens that went just over the bar.

Goal-line interventions denied the Dolly Blues a more comfortable half-time lead as first Jack Duggan had a powerful header cleared off the line then Rob Henry looped a cross towards the back post that would have nestled in the net if not for an acrobatic Dysart.

In much more eye-catching style Max Rothwell also missed a decent chance after Henry exchanged passes with Clark who pressed it into his path just inside the box only for his curling effort to just scoop over the bar.

The second 45 brought a change for the home side as they kept the ball better and put City’s back-line under some concerted pressure.

Marshall and Duggan continued their aerial dominance and with some energetic cover from Craig Carney and Simon Wills the Dolly Blues maintained excellent defensive concentration.

This home pressure led to inevitable space behind the Laird lines and City will always relish that with their pace.

It was from a corner that they edged ahead, whipped towards the back post from Meaney and headed into the ground and the back of the net from Marshall.

Aaron Bowen, said lanky front-man and Laird’s man of the match, had a good chance to pull one back for his side after a Wills back header fell short of Fearon.

He took it early on the volley and Fearon saved well with a combination of forearm and leg.

The introduction of Billy McKenna and Dodgson from the bench served to make City even more dangerous on the counter and inevitably they got their third.

McKenna surged down the right and pulled it back to Alex Johnson on the edge of the box whose shot was saved by Palethorpe. After a brief melee Dodgson stole the ball and slotted it into the bottom corner.

An excellent all-round performance from the Dolly Blues, to keep them unbeaten going in to a tough Bank Holiday weekend, where they face challenging fixtures against Witton Albion, away on Saturday, and at home to high-flying AFC Fylde on Monday.

Cammell Laird: Palethorpe, Lyons, Dysart, Corner, O’Rourke, Stevens ((Molloy 51), Lipson (McNamara 45), Millington, Bowen, Stroud, Adamson. Sub not used: Mohamma

Lancaster City: Fearon 7, Henry 8, Elderton 8, Duggan 8, Marshall 8, Carney 7, Clark 7 (McKenna 71), Wills 8, Hattersley 7 (Dodgson 60), Meaney 7 (Johnson 82), Rothwell 7. Subs not used: Gregson, Egerton-Wilson

Referee: D Gratton

Attendance: 71

Star man: Jack Duggan. Ruthless in the air and assured with the ball on the deck.