BACK in October Crowle Keys travelled to New Holland and lost 4-0 to Lincoln Castle.

Sunday's return fixture produced the same result but Crowle's performance was much more encouraging than their dismal display two months ago.

Keys kicked into Windsor Park's nearly legendary stiff breeze from the Railway End in the first half and lined up with a damage-limiting five man midfield which seemed to do the trick as Lincoln Castle seldom troubled Graeme Fletcher's goal.

On the few occasions the visitors broke through Keys' rearguard their finishing was as wasteful as it was in New Holland and Fletcher twice had to retrieve the ball from the neighbouring postcode when the usually reliable Jamie Stow blazed over.

With half-time approaching and Keys' sheet still clean, Castle took the lead when a short burst of head tennis following a corner resulted in the ball bouncing weakly into the bottom corner.

Keys' performance improved in the second period and the ball spent more time in Castle's half but apart from shots from Ryan Janes and Mark Easthope, Castle's goalkeeper Mick Smith, an old adversary of Crowle's from his Owston Ferry days, had little to do.

The away side went further ahead when a defensive lapse by Graham Clark allowed one of their forwards to rifle a shot into the net and their third goal came from a lob which swirled in the wind and deceived the unfortunate Fletcher who flapped a despairing hand at the ball as it dropped over his head.

Josh Simpson almost scored a consolation goal when Joe Taylor centred a ball but his shot was blocked by a sliding challenge and it wasn't long before Lincoln Castle scored their final goal when a shot against the bar bounced behind the line and back into play.

Towards the end Simpson had a shot which went just wide and Mark Easthope forced a good save from Smith but despite the differences in the home and away games, Lincoln Castle completed a four-nil double over the Keys.

This Sunday Crowle are at Trinity FC in Scunthorpe.