Defeat for Lancaster City at Northern Premier League leaders

Lancaster City suffered a heavy defeat in the Northern Premier League at league leaders, Macclesfield Town.

The Dolly Blues opened the scoring inside the first five minutes.

Brayden Shaw dispossessed Justin Johnson and whipped a cross to the back post where Dylan Thompson was on hand to head the ball across goal and put the Dollies ahead.

The league leaders were on the prowl trying to get back into the game, with Lancaster's defence holding firm.

The best chance in this period fell to Lewis Mansell who under pressure from the Macclesfield defence just couldn't get off the shot he wanted to make Max Dearnley in the Macclesfield goal work more to stop it.

The games pivotal point came on 15 minutes. Laurent Mendy played a though ball to Danny Elliott, and captain Sam Bailey was deemed to have tripped him in the area. Elliott dispatched the penalty to equalise for the Silkmen.

Lewis Coulton played in by Dom Lawson on 36 minutes but he pulled his effort wide, before somewhat against the run of play Justin Johnson put the hosts ahead on 42 minutes.

Paul Dawson played a perfect through ball and Johnson placed the ball past an onrushing Andre Mendes, who was making his second debut for the club after he re-joined City earlier in the week.

Then, a Sam Bailey free kick was saved by Dearnley and a Brayden Shaw effort from the edge of the box just over saw the half ended with Macclesfield with their noses in front.

It wouldn't take long for Macclesfield to kill the game. After seeing his first effort saved by Mendes a couple of minutes before, Elliott made no mistake on 48 minutes. A cross played in from the right and he made no mistake from six yards out.

Ten minutes later, James Edmondson ran onto a through ball and rounded Mendes to score from a tight angle.

A triple substitution was made by Chris Willcock at this point, but this could not stop the momentum of the home side. Neil Kengni hitting the post on 71 minutes.

The Dollies did come close on 74 minutes with a Charlie Bailey and Marcus Cusnai efforts but in truth in the second half Lancaster City didn't really lay a glove on the Silkmen back line and Danny Whitehead made it 5-1 on 81 minutes.

Lancaster City are next in action on Saturday (November 9), when Ilkeston Town are visiting Giant Axe.