New County North Durham Youth League

Birtley consolidated pole position in the Under-16 division with an emphatic 7-1 victory at Consett where Ross Preston was clearly man of the match. He scored no fewer than five of his side's seven goals.

Birtley received a double boost with the news that second from top Blaydon lost 4-2 at home to Leam Rangers. David Taylor scored both the Blaydon goals and the two results mean that Birtley now lead their rivals by four points, but Blaydon have a game in hand.

A brace of goals by Adrian Sutcliffe featured in Wylam's 4-3 success at home to Blackfyne and Docherty was another player to score twice in Cleveland Hall's 4-0 success over Beamish. Redheugh were another side not to concede a goal when they scored three times winning at Rutherford.

In the Under-17 division Leam Rangers and Blackfyne are still fighting it out for the title. Leam Rangers went to bottom of the table Wear Valley and won 7-1 when Fairless and Langston both bagged a brace of goals.

Blackfyne, meanwhile, faced a much more difficult hurdle in their fixture with Montagu and they had to fight all the way for a narrow 2-1 success.

Only one other game was played in the league and Prudhoe saw off the challenge from Blaydon by a 3-1 margin.

In the Under-17 league cup semi-final, Felling edged Consett by the only goal and in a quarter-final tie Redheugh progressed at the expense of West Denton whom they defeated 5-2.