A BIZARRE Farrell Kilbane own goal was the only thing that came between City and their first silverware of the season in Friday's Peter Swales Challenge Shield against Leigh RMI.

The traditional curtain raiser saw cup winners Lancaster travel to a sparsely populated Hilton Park for a Friday night fixture full of quality.

And Tony Hesketh's men found themselves behind after just five minutes, when Peter Cumiskey's powerful cross was turned in by Andy Mason.

But it was City who piled on the pressure, with Dean Martin twice going close early on, with one shot hitting the post, sparking a goalmouth scramble from which Neil Morton should have benefited.

On 17 minutes, Chris Ward was put clean through and, with veteran keeper Dave Felgate advancing rapidly, a superb lob put City on level terms.

City had a scare when their discovery of this pre-season, Lee Clitheroe, headed the ball against his own post.

And City's strange defending continued only minutes into the second half. Former Morecambe target Steve Jones used his pace to get behind the City defence.

Keeper Cyril Sharrock, in only because new signing Paul Horridge couldn't change his work shifts at the last minute, saved superbly.

But Kilbane came steaming in and lunged desperately for the ball -- a challenge he didn't need to make and which left the net bulging.

To Kilbane's credit, he never let his head go down and Leigh rarely threatened going forward for the rest of the game.

Paul Haddow's cross/shot brought the best out of keeper Felgate and former City star Jamie Udall gave ex-colleague Kenny Mayers a couple of friendly reminders with strong tackling.

As injury time approached, City kept on looking for the equaliser their play deserved, with a Martin glancing header blocked and Chris Ward's shot headed off the line.

In the end, however, it was former Morecambe defender Andy Farrell who lifted the shield, but City will be encouraged by a match which saw them look well capable of living with the side which won last season's Unibond league title.

TONY Hesketh looks set for a busy week in the transfer market as he works to strengthen his squad before the big kick off.

Experienced forward Brian Welsh has signed in after a spell at Clitheroe. Burnley based Welsh starred for Accrington at Unibond premier league level, and had a previous brief spell alongside Hesketh as a raw teenager at Barrow.

"He's more of a forward player than a midfielder," says Hesketh: "He doesn't score a lot of goals but he's a good link player. He was out for six or seven months last season and he was training with Stalybridge earlier this Summer."

Striking cover is a priority for Hesketh and he still hopes to bring in a prolific non-league striker before the season kicks off against Burscough next Tuesday, as Chris Ward continues to attract football league scouts and Neil Morton's fight with injury continues.

Morton and Bryan Butler look set to miss the start of the season. Butler cut his thumb in a DIY accident and is likely to be in plaster for four weeks while the unlucky Morton's knee is again giving him problems which -- City hope -- are not as serious as those which ruled him out for most of last season.