By Rob Wright

AVRO 1
ATHERTON COLLS 0
AVRO opened their league season in dogged fashion as they beat Atherton Collieries at the Whitebank Stadium.
The first half was a probing, stop-start affair that hardly saw either side stake a particular claim on the fixture. However, in the second period, the hosts ramped up the pressure and saw a would-be penalty controversially given as a free-kick just outside the box.
Avro kept going, and ultimately did find retribution for the earlier denial as Geffry Ebhote was brought down in the box 20 minutes from the end. This time the referee had no...