Layton Snrs played their first friendly of the season against their Junior rivals.

The game was played in glorious sunshine at Claremont Park and both teams were at full strength.

The Seniors started and soon were ahead with a tap from young Damo who nipped in at the back post.

The game started at a furious pace and the Jnuiors were looking dangerous down the left flank. However Funky Fallows was playing out of his skin and stopping everything in his way.

Seniors almost went close again but poor finishing and the chance was gone.

Again the Juniors started to put soem ncie moves together and were soon level just before halftime. A midfield mistake and the ball bounced nicely to the lad with blonde hair who slotted past oncoming Greg. Not even his nright organge top could stop the goal.

Half time 1 - 1

The 2nd half started out brightly with the Jnrs looking more dangerous, Seniors looked tried and after a few changes the gaffer tried to beef up the efforts. A number of good strong tackles went in with neither side wanted to lose.

The Jnrs looked to have won it in the last 5 mins, long ball was missed by the defence and Greg aka Brian the snail took time to come of his line no not coke! 2 - 1 to the Jnrs who thought they had won the league.

However the Snrs came back and almost nicked it. A long cross from Funky had the Jnr goalkeeper under pressure and McKnickers headed home. A final Meehan shot, was he playing, just clipped the bar and the final whistle blew.

A good game, fair result and good luck to the Jnrs on their day they should be challenging for top honours in their league.

Thansk to Peter Jones for refeing (did he) he is now getting laser corrective sight done for the next game :)

Layton celebrated their runner up success with a great nite at Mamas. All who helped in this great season enjoyed a fun filled evening sponsored by Technical and Electrical Services owner Brain Lisgo.

Thanks and here is to next season

The Toot were hoping for a favour from beaten Gledhill finalists Hydronics by beating Poulton and help them secure second spot.

After their blip in the cup semi and in the league, Layton returned to winning ways against Northern Care and Highbury. These wins sandwiched a narrow defeat by Hydronics which looked like 3rd or 4th spot for the Toot.

Prolific against Norther Care and Highbury St Tropez grabbed himself another hatrick and more as he shwoed the way to the net. Along with a great team efforts finally knocked Divisional winners out of the 2nd spot running and hoping Poulton would slip up to.

Poulton were in excellent form but with a slip up to the final double winners Qulligans they had to beat Hydronics to come runners up.

However Hydronics showed no hangover of their cup defeat as they ran out 4 - 2 winners against Poulton who settled for 3rd spot.

Well done to Layton who for a long time were top of the league and could have challenged Quilligans better if not for a couple of strange results. However its a great achievement for only their second year in the Prem and more to come hopefully as they push on next year.

At times they have been underrated but mostly overlooked and this is why from 7th last year a great effort by all the lads who turned up week in and out and did their stuff on the pitch.

Well done and looking forward to the presentation nite and especially next season.

Layton cruised past Fleetwood CC in this mid week battle. Wednesday nite games are always good to watch, nice weather, sun shining, players changing in the car park while the local dogs do a crap on the pitch. All this brings a joy to mid week games

Anyway on to the match Layton made it hard as usual the Fleetwood lads battle hard and fought for every ball. However goals from Preece the Predator, Alex Jeb I will get fitter, Jack Sparrow and Home and Away saw of the lads from North side of the toon.

It wasn't pretty but a good game with 3 points going to the home team who have a away game against Hydronics on sunday.

Layton finally won last Sunday at the expense of Northern Care, who beat them in the cup semi. It was good to see the Layton lads get justice for the semi and 3 points for their hard efforts at Collins Park. The final score 3 - 1 didn't justify the chances they created but didn't take and going forward this is an area the gaffer is going to look at next season. The Toot started the brightest and created the ealry chances with Hancock and Cooke testing the home keeper. Both teams went for it as the elusive second spot has a number of teams chasing it.

The Toot finally took the lead through a lovely lob by Cook over the advancing keeper. NC never really looked like scoring as the Toot defended well and kept them at bay.

Half time saw the Toot go in with a 1 nil lead and that was 2 not long after. A mix up in the home side defence and good work by H&A allowed Leslie Ash aka Crossy to nod home. The Toot looking comfortbale as the home side started to fragment.

However thyey were thrown a life line as Jebby nailed the NC forward, free kick and amazingly enough the Toot players stood still. As a quick free kick was taken Watters walked through and slotted home.

The Toot were shaekn by this and NC could sense at least a draw, however the game was finally wrapped up by a superb goal from Home and Away. He cut in from the left passed two NC defenders and a bullet of  shot top corner made the final score 3 - 1.

A good result now sees Layton bakc in the mix and a good opportunity to finish runners up if other results go for them as well.

Its now Highbury on wednesday at Boundary looking forward to a bone cruncher there.

The first midweek fixture for Layton was a hard fixture to top of the table Quilligans. After the defaet to Northern care in the cup, the team needed to bounce bakc to stop the descent down the league table. With a make shift team the gaffer had to make a number of key changes with players missing.

However the Toot stood resolute for 80 minutes and created 5 or 6 chances to win the game. Chris Preece, Stuart Holloway and Mark Meehan all spurning chances to take the lead.

It was slack play that allowed that man again to score for the second time in the last ten minutes, Danny Rowe. He pounced on a cross and slotted the ball home. 1 nil to the visitors, however the performance was 100% and the Layton players can be proud of the efforts they put in and made it tough for what looks like the Premier champions.

Now can they revenge the cup defeat by beating Northern care in the league and try for that elusive second spot.

Layton's season looks finally over as they surrendered to Northern care in the semi of the Divisional cup. The gaffer was lookign to bounce back from 3 defeats and was not disappointed by the performance alone. Layton dominated most of the game and created a number of chances however composure in front of goal let them down.

Mistakes in defense and a dodgy decision with a last minute penalty cost the Toot a chance to play in the final. Northern Care came out on top 3 - 2 and will now play red Rose Catering who beat Wrea Green 1 - 0.

So where now for the once top team? who knows will they have enough palyers to see the season through, what will happen next year. All those questions will be answered at the end of year season i guess but watch this space.

Since the give away to Poulton following on from the Hydronics defeat are Layton in danger of lighting striking twice. Last year saw them about to go top but then the dramatic decline quicker than the Titanic goinhg down saw them finish 7th and what a down ward turn.

This year with a new squad there was hope they could sustain a challenge in the league and domestic honours. However with losses to Poulton and now Wrea Green its looking like last year all over again. The lads have one last chance to stop the season falling foul on holding onto the tag of the nearly men with na semi final against Northern Care. A team thye have yet to play and a competition they have yet to kick a ball in. Will the real Toot turn up this Sunday or the other team hell bent on self destruct tunr up and give it away.

Its a tall order, they were expected to beat Poulton and gub Wrea Green however it didn't and now the gaffer has his biggest taks ever to get the lads up for the game of their season.

Northern care are cup favourites knocking out Quilligans and will be a hard team to beat, it should be a cracker roll on Sunday.