West 1-4 Charnock Richard

Wednesday 14th January 2026
NWCFL Premier Division
West 1 Charnock Richard 4

West XI: Martin, Kenny (Jones, 63), L.Roberts, Riley (Dawson, 74), McConnell, Moscrop (Billingsley, 63, Parkinson (H.Roberts, 63), Murray, Elliott, Lazenbury, Matthews (Banister, 63). 

West's first home match of 2026 ended in disappointment on Wednesday night as Charnock Richard left M21 with all three points. 

Paul Marshall handed Ben Elliott a first start since rejoining the club and he showed his worth immediately by winning a corner and smashing home a rebound to Tom Murray's effort inside 15 minutes. It was the perfect home-coming for West's all-time top scored in the NWCFL, and the momentum was very much with West at that point. 

It proved difficult however to break down a resolute Charnock Richard defence, and the best chance to extend the lead fell to Jordan Lazenbury, who fired over the crossbar from the edge of the box just after the half-hour mark.

West were made to pay for this however as the visitors drew themselves level less than a minute later. Ollie Martin did well to parry a stinging shot from the edge of the area, but an acrobatic finish from Fenton Davies looped over everyone to make the score 1-1 going into the break. 

West struggled to then get a foothold in the second half and, whilst they enjoyed the lion's share of possession, they looked vulnerable whenever Charnock had the chance to counter. The Greens unfortunately had plenty of opportunities to do so and made West pay with three disappointingly similar second half breakaway goals to put the match beyond reach.

That defeat kept West in 4th spot, but it came in a midweek where the teams immediately below have managed to gain some ground in the race for promotion.

Article by Ollie Sargent, Photo by Nathan Ashmall