Hat trick for Josh Dolling |
Burnley hit Carlisle for six up in Cumbria, as we reported on Saturday, with Josh Dolling getting the team's first hat trick of the season, while Wrexham were 5-1 winners at Accrington to help push them away from the bottom four.
With leaders Wigan without a game, it was an opportunity for second place Preston to close the gap. They did so but only by one point having been held at home by Shrewsbury and that result also meant them dropping a couple of places in the league.
Rochdale and Bury have now moved up to second and third after wins against Tranmere and Fleetwood.
It's all very tight at the top with one point separating each of the top four places, but Rochdale and Bury both have a game in hand which could see either of them move above Wigan.
Despite the big win, we are still in seventh place but with at least one game in hand on four of the teams above us and it was one those teams we play this Saturday with Walsall, currently fifth, our opponents at Gawthorpe. Walsall beat us earlier in the season but were beaten by Oldham last Saturday.
Our season has been a strange one in that we started with two wins and then failed to win any of the next five. That was then followed by six consecutive wins which came to an end with defeats against Bury and Blackpool. Hopefully this latest win will see us go on another positive run and push for those top places.
In the other game last week, Port Vale won at Blackpool which has moved them up to tenth.
The first results of the year are below, along with this week's fixtures, Burnley's goalscorers this season and the current league table.
LAST WEEK'S RESULTS
Saturday 3rd January
ACCRINGTON 1 WREXHAM 5
BLACKPOOL 2 PORT VALE 3
BURY 1 FLEETWOOD 0
CARLISLE 0 BURNLEY 6
PRESTON 1 SHREWSBURY 1
TRANMERE 0 ROCHDALE 2
WALSALL 1 OLDHAM 2
THIS WEEK'S FIXTURES
Friday 9th January
ACCRINGTON v PORT VALE
Saturday 10th January
BURNLEY v WALSALL
OLDHAM v BLACKPOOL
ROCHDALE v FLEETWOOD
SHREWSBURY v BURY
TRANMERE v MORECAMBE
WIGAN v CARLISLE
WREXHAM v PRESTON
BURNLEY'S GOALSCORERS
7: JOSH DOLLING, BRAD JACKSON
6: NTUMBA MASSANKA, KHIUS METZ
3: CHRISTIAN HILL
2: JAMAL CRAWFORD, JAMIE FROST, BRANDON WILSON
1: SHAUN HOBSON, ANDY NUGENT, ALEX RICHARDSON, WAQAS AZAM
CURRENT LEAGUE TABLE
Team | pld | w | d | l | f | a | pts |
WIGAN ATHLETIC | 17 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 47 | 18 | 36 |
ROCHDALE | 16 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 42 | 20 | 35 |
BURY | 16 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 31 | 19 | 34 |
PRESTON NORTH END | 17 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 35 | 14 | 33 |
WALSALL | 17 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 29 | 18 | 32 |
TRANMERE ROVERS | 18 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 33 | 27 | 32 |
BURNLEY | 16 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 37 | 21 | 30 |
BLACKPOOL | 18 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 33 | 29 | 27 |
OLDHAM ATHLETIC | 14 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 31 | 21 | 24 |
PORT VALE | 16 | 7 | 1 | 8 | 26 | 31 | 22 |
SHREWSBURY TOWN | 17 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 33 | 34 | 20 |
WREXHAM | 18 | 6 | 2 | 10 | 30 | 39 | 20 |
CARLISLE UNITED | 17 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 23 | 42 | 16 |
FLEETWOOD TOWN | 16 | 4 | 0 | 12 | 13 | 36 | 12 |
ACCRINGTON STANLEY | 17 | 1 | 2 | 14 | 17 | 47 | 5 |
MORECAMBE | 18 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 13 | 57 | 4 |