STAND hot shot Chris Denham has signed for UniBond Premier side Bamber Bridge.

The 18-year-old moves up three divisions, albeit from the top of the North West Counties Second Divison to second-from-bottom of the UniBond Premier.

He had already turned down NWCL First Division side Ramsbottom and UniBond First Division club Radcliffe Borough this season but it is thought the chance to move to a Premier club was too big an opportunity to turn down.

He played - and scored - for them against Workington in the UniBond League Cup on Tuesday.

Stand will get no compensation for the player because he was not signed on a contract.

"We tried to put him on a contract last season," said manager Nick Davis. "But he wouldn't sign because he knew that bigger clubs wouldn't come in for him if he was on a contract.

"His dad used to play for Northwich Victoria so he knows the ins and outs of it all."

Denham, whose brother Mark also plays for Stand, agonised over the decision, according to Davis.

"He rang me to say he wanted to stay, but you can't stand in the way of players who have the opportunity to move up three divisions.

"He is on form, as they discovered on Tuesday when he played for them and scored.

"I am disappointed because he is our leading goalscorer, but these things happen. I take players from teams below us and teams higher than us come and take our players."

Denham is the top scorer in the North West Counties League Second Division with 15 goals this season, incuding 12 in 16 league games.

But Davis has a replacement already lined up. Mark Wilson, who scored 18 goals in 18 games last season before breaking his leg, is ready to start training again.

And Davis has new signing Lee Wilkinson, who scored in his first game at Formby last week, chomping at the bit.

"I am not panicking as much as I would have been doing this time last week," said Davis. "Mark's specialist has said he is ready to start training again and he is probably a better player than Chris, more experienced," he said of the 24-year-old. "And because we are top of the league lots of players are wanting to come down and train with us.

Davis can hardly believe the good start his side have had to the season.

The club, who were based in Whitefield before moving to Haslingden's former Ewood Bridge ground last season, are an astonishing 12 points clear at the top of the Second Division.

They have won 11 of their 14 league games this season, including home and away victories over second-placed Formby and a win over third-placed Alsager.

They are the talk of the league but manager Davis says they are used to that. "We were talked about when we were in the Manchester League because we won that for three seasons before we got into the North West Counties.

"The start we have had to this season has been fantastic. I did think we would be up there but I never thought we would make the impact we have."

Davis was particularly impressed with the character his side showed in fighting back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 at Formby.

"We are playing well, scoring goals and the character we have shown has been tremendous.

"We are going out there thinking we can't get beat, even if we go a couple of goals down.

"And we could have won the Formby game 4-2 because we got a penalty late on. "Their players wanted to kill Chris Denham at the end of the game because they said he dived for the penalty and the fans were spitting at us and all sorts."

Stand entertain Squire's Gate at Ewood Bridge on Saturday (kick-off 3pm).