Braidwood performed a timely clearance after City's Sillito whipped in a testing cross into the danger area, while Kendall in the City goal had to scramble back to stop a deflected Hutchinson cross off defender Greaves finding its way into the net.

A Nelson Leader cartoon depicting Lincoln's bizarre goal in the Seedhill clash. Click on the picture for a full size view.

Just as Nelson appeared to be gaining the upper hand, a horrendous blunder by the keeper gifted Lincoln the lead. Steele passed back to Birds under pressure, but instead of picking the ball up, the keeper started bouncing it. To his and Nelson's horror, Pringle nipped in to dispossess him and stroke the ball into the unguarded net.

His blushes were partially spared when almost from the kick off Nelson attacked and scored. Eddleston broke through and shot, forcing a parry from Kendall. Before the keeper could collect the loose ball, McCulloch had pounced, and he slotted home.

Nelson asserted, and only an acrobatic stop from Kendall prevented Wolstenholme getting on the scoresheet. The Blues came even closer from a corner soon after, but Broadhead's header cannoned back off the crossbar, while McCulloch fired over with the final chance of the first period.

The Blues continued to press at the start of the second half. Kendall was lucky to escape when he kicked the ball against Eddlestone, the ball deflecting just the wrong side of the post for the Blues. But just six minutes had gone when Nelson did take the lead for the first time.

McCulloch shot through the City defence and saw his shot blocked, but picked up the loose ball before squaring to Eddleston, and the prolific striker coolly placed the ball beyond Kendall and into the back of the net.

As in recent games, Nelson then put their supporters through the mill again as they sat back to protect the lead. They were fortunate to escape when a corner from City was headed goalwards by Fenwick. The ball rebounded back off the crossbar to Silitto, who shot straight at Rigg on the line and saw the ball rebound to safety.

Though Nelson were hanging on, McCulloch did have a fine chance to wrap the game up at the other end, but with Kendall out of goal he rushed his shot and put it wide of goal.

The final whistle blew and Nelson had held on to gain a vital two points.

Nelson travelled north to face league strugglers Durham confident of cementing their position back at the top of the table. On a difficult uneven pitch, this proved to be far more awkward than expected though.

Fortunately the backs, Steele and Rigg, faced more of a problem with the sun during the first half than with the City attack, although at the other end Nelson were posing little threat themselves.

Eddleston proved to be Nelson's hero in a tricky game, and came to the rescue with a customary goal. Davidson completely missed an attempted clearance in the Durham defence, and the Blues striker needed no second invitation and thumped a high swerving shot past Patchett in the home goal.

In the second half Eddleston had the ball in the net once more, but his effort was disallowed for offside. After that Nelson looked comfortable without really threatening to extend their lead. At the other end Birds was largely untroubled during the second half. He kept out Durham's only real effort with a good save down to his left from Thompson's low shot.

However, with five minutes left he was injured in a goalmouth scramble, and he had to be carried from the field. Broadhead received a nasty kick on the knee in the same melee, but managed to struggle on to the final whistle, during which time there were no further incidents of note.

It was a below par effort from Nelson, but they had done enough against their lowly opponents to retain pole position in the league - defeat for Walsall extending the gap to two points.

Horribly wet weather in Lancashire meant the Victoria Park return against Durham was played in awful conditions, with the pitch quickly resembling a bog.

McCulloch and Broadhead had failed to recover from knocks in the first game, and were replaced by Black and Price respectively, the latter making just his third appearance of the campaign.

Durham played above themselves as they made a great start to the game. Fell began brightly and whipped in a series of good crosses to keep Wilson, Steele and Rigg on their toes.

Nelson dealt with the threat, and started to move forward with purpose themselves. Wilson and Eddleston both forced saves from the visiting keeper, while Braidwood blasted a wonderful effort inches over the bar.

22 minutes in Nelson took the lead. Price fired in a wicked strike which was put behind acrobatically by Elliott, who injured himself in the process. Hutchinson swung the corner in, and, though Wolstenholme failed to connect when perfectly placed, Hoad didn't, and he found the net to open the scoring.

Wolstenholme worked tirelessly but failed to cash in when found in a good position again. He was the provider for Nelson's second though as he ran down the right flank before threading the ball inside for Eddleston to head home a textbook goal.

Birds was having another quiet game in the Nelson goal, but did have to be alert shortly before the break when thwarting Woodhouse to protect the two goal lead.

Blues kicked off the second half in positive fashion, and Eddleston soon forced a great stop from Patcher. They resorted to a spell of showboating, much to the displeasure of the crowd, and had a let off when Birds had to brilliantly keep out a Surtees effort down by his post.

Both teams tired in the poor conditions, but the visitors deteriorated much the quicker. A copycat effort saw Wolstenholme square once more for Eddleston to head home and extend the lead, and Patcher spoiled an otherwise great personal performance when palming a Hutchinson cross into his own goal instead of over the bar for Nelson's fourth.

The Blues cruised home and were more than pleased with the performance of the returning Price, who slotted back into the heart of the defence seamlessly. The lead at the top of the division remained two points, with Chesterfield leading the chasing pack.

Match 24 summary: Saturday 10th February 1923
Nelson	(2) 4	Durham City	(0) 0
Hoad, Eddleston 2, Hutchinson
Nelson: Joseph BIRDS, John STEELE, Clement RIGG, James PRICE, Ernie BRAIDWOOD, David WILSON, Sid HOAD, John BLACK, Arthur WOLSTENHOLME, Joe EDDLESTON, Bob HUTCHINSON
Durham City: G.W. Patcher, H.B. Elliott, G. Turnbull, T.R. Davidson, R. Musgrove, A. Thompson, R.H. Woodhouse, W. Bertram, T.W. Roe, E.A. Young, J.W. Fell Attendance: 5,000