A clinical Farsley made it two wins out of three to start the new Vanarama National League North season, with a comfortable 3-0 win at Marine on Tuesday evening.

After the disappointment of Saturday’s loss at Buxton, Farsley made a quick response in this Merseyside clash with Bailey Sloane putting the Celts up inside 15 minutes.

The Celts jumped on two defensive errors from the hosts, with DJ Campton-Sturridge and Darren Stephenson adding to the tally inside the first 45 minutes, with a controlled defensive performance in the second half securing the three points along with a first clean sheet of the season.

Farsley were on it from the off and were almost ahead in just the second minute when a goalmouth scramble saw the ball head towards the line but Luke Hutchinson managed to smother the ball to keep the scores level.

Hutchinson’s opposition number Tom Wooster was called into action on the 11th minute mark as he made a solid stop from Tom Butler’s header.

The Celt Army were ahead just four minutes later though – good work from Danny Greenfield saw him square the ball in from the right side and left-back Sloane scooped the ball in at the second attempt.

The lead was doubled on 26 minutes when Butler left his pass-back short, allowing Campton-Sturridge, one of a number of changes made by Clayton Donaldson to his starting XI, to take possession and finish coolly past the Marine goalkeeper.

Then two became three nine minutes later when a similar lapse in concentration again saw Campton-Sturridge pick up the ball, before he picked out a precision pass to find Stephenson who slotted home.

Wooster had to be alert just after the hour mark as he got down well to his left to prevent Tom Allan’s misdirected header from creeping in and then on 67 minutes, Regan Griffiths passed up a glorious chance to pull a goal back as he shot wide at the back post.

The second half continued as a tight affair, Marine shading the better chances but a stubborn Farsley back-line prevented any serious attempts.

That said, Kallan Murphy had a couple more opportunities to reduce the arrears in the final ten minutes, but first skied an attempted bicycle kick before heading over from close range as the clock ticked towards stoppage time.

After doing the league double over Scarborough Athletic last season, Farsley will be going in search of another positive result over the Seadogs as they head to the Yorkshire Coast for their next league fixture on Saturday.

Farsley Celtic: Wooster, Assenso, Misambo, Allan, Turner, Sloane, Greenfield (Leverett 75), Branson, B Atkinson (Fielding 88), Stephenson (Mampala 83) Campton-Sturridge (Fox 66).
Sub not used: Kiwomya.