CLITHEROE modern pentathlete Samantha Murray continued her impressive start to 2012 by winning the Hungarian Indoor Championships in Budapest at the weekend.

Murray followed up her win at the final national selection competition in Bath last month by taking gold in Budapest, comfortably beating Lithuania’s world number two Laura Asadauskaite into second place.

Murray, originally from Clitheroe, is combining training at the Pentathlon GB high performance centre with studying for a degree in French and Politics at the University of Bath.

She totalled 5,564 points to win by 112, and Murray said: “It was a good weekend to have a competition and see where I am at the moment.

“Winning was great, but I’m not going to get carried away.

“It’s good to see some of the changes I’ve made over the winter are working and hopefully I can take this forward to the next World Cup.

“The squad has been training really hard and the hard work has paid off.”

Murray’s Great Britain teammate, Beijing 2008 Olympian Katy Livingston, took bronze, eight seconds behind Asadauskaite, with Kate French seventh and Kerry Prise 18th.

Murray returns to action at the opening World Cup of the year in Charlotte, the USA, from March 8th to 11th.

She is joined by Heather Fell, Freyja Prentice and Mhairi Spence in the women’s team.

IT’S four defeats in six now for Clitheroe and 17 in total for the season.

The first of two games in 48 hours saw the Blues return to the scene of their last league outing, taking on the landlords of Stade France, but they left West Yorkshire empty-handed having been beaten 2-0 by an industrious Ossett Town side.

Clitheroe started brightly and could have taken the lead inside two minutes. A corner from Lee Pugh was flicked on by Andrew Naylor at the front post, but neither Kev Brown nor Jerrome Matthews could force the ball home.

The Blues continued to enjoy the lion’s share of possession but found themselves behind against the run of play in the 16th minute when a through ball from Shane Kelsey found Neil Towler, and his cross was side-footed into the net by Martyn Scully.

The visitors largely remained in the ascendancy throughout the first half but failed to create many clear cut chances. Ash Parillon fired wide after being found by Naylor, and the pair combined again before Parillon attempted to lift the ball over Ossett keeper Ashley Connor, only for the effort to be turned behind.

Clitheroe’s best chance fell to Matthews moments before the break as he ran onto a superb pass from Naylor, rounded the keeper, but failed to keep his shot down.

After the interval Clitheroe continued to have territorial advantage and, after forcing a number of early corners, came close to equalising on 53 minutes when Chris Smalley drilled a shot narrowly wide.

As in the first half, Ossett barely threatened the visitor’s goal yet doubled their advantage on 61 minutes when Ryan Laight met Scully’s corner to power a header past Zack Hibbert.

Moments later it could have been worse for the Blues as Hibbert was forced into a smart save to deny Towler.

Clitheroe continued to press as in the final quarter of an hour but Connor bundled an effort from Lee Pugh behind for a corner and the lively Duncan Watmore, who replaced Matthews, saw an effort rebound off the post.

Unfortunately, with these opportunities went Clitheroe’s hopes of salvaging anything.

Carl Garner’s next task was to pick his players up for a trip to the Tameside Stadium to face title-chasing Curzon Ashton who were unbeaten at home all season.

The Blues took the lead in the second minute, but not before Curzon wasted a glorious opportunity in the opening seconds as Hibbert’s clearance went straight to Lee Blackshaw, who bore down on goal but saw his flick clear the crossbar.

Moments later excellent control by Duncan Watmore allowed him to arc a through ball into the path of debutant Ben Waddington, who beat the off-side trap and produced an assured finish - scoring the Blues’ 500th league goal at this level of football.

Waddington and Watmore linked again after 18 minutes with a sharp one-two that saw strong penalty appeals waved away by the referee after Graham Kay appeared to trip Waddington.

However, after 38 minutes Curzon equalised. Blackshaw cut inside and found Matthew Kay on the edge of the box who fired a shot over Hibbert into the net.

Clitheroe refused to be rocked by this and were on the front foot again before the half was over. A driven free-kick by Pugh was flicked on by Watmore for Dent at the far post, but his effort was blocked.

The visitors were immediately in the ascendancy at the start of the second period as Parillon surged forward and found Watmore. His shot was saved by Joshua Ollerenshaw, and the rebound refused to fall for Parillon or Waddington.

While the Blues had to withstand a flurry of corners, delivered with precision by Samuel Walker, they continued to look dangerous.

Hibbert’s clearance was flicked forward by Dent for Waddington and Watmore to combine and release Roberts, whose driven effort narrowly cleared the angle.

But Curzon scored what proved to be the winner after 69 minutes.

For once Clitheroe failed to deal with a long clearance, and Chris McDonagh cut inside and angled a shot across Hibbert into the corner of the net for his 20th goal of the season.

John Flanagan’s side started to gain the upper hand from this point and Watson thumped a header from a Kay corner against the bar in the 72nd minute.

Roberts was only inches from restoring parity as he fizzed an effort through a crowd of players as the game entered the final 10 minutes., but from another Walker corner, Purcell found McDonagh whose header looped onto the crossbar and was cleared.

The Blues now entertain Durham City on Saturday and will look for some home comforts as they return to Shawbridge for the first time in a month.

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SCOUT Phil Smith assesses Eddie Howe’s first year in charge and the potential to make the play-offs

Several readers have been in touch to request my opinion on Eddie Howe, now that he has recently celebrated a year in charge of this magnificent football club.

The question warranted a sizeable response, and thus it was unable to be answered in a short summary at the end of a regular column.

However, the lack of a midweek fixture has now provided ample opportunity to offer a suitable reflection.

Even the greatest football manager will make mistakes in the transfer market, Manucho and Mame Biram Diouf at Manchester United evidence of this point. The latter scored just once whilst at Old Trafford, typically against ourselves!

I remain adamant that we require an extra central midfielder, but, in terms of the acquisitions he has made, Howe can be pleased with his efforts. Replacing Tyrone Mears with Kieran Trippier was an absolute masterstroke, and the former Manchester City loanee could play in the Premier League right now, of that I have no doubt.

His own experience as a youth coach at Bournemouth, coupled with the appointment of Jason Blake, should see more of our own talent come through the ranks.

Bar a few obvious exceptions, we haven’t had that many make the transition from Gawthorpe to Turf Moor, and any improvement in this ratio must be encouraged.

Ultimately, however, football is a result based industry, and, as a result, a definitive assessment can only be made at the end of his tenure.

When Brian Laws was dismissed as manager, we were sat in ninth place, two points off the top six, with a game in hand.

The season concluded with us seven points away from the play-offs, and so we cannot point to an improvement in the first five months of his reign.

The current campaign began poorly, and relegation was more than an unsubstantiated concern as late into the season as November.

The frustration grew as we began to be outplayed up at the KC Stadium, but, all of sudden, David Edgar banged one in 12 minutes from time, and we went on to win the game in the most remarkable of circumstances.

A demolition of Ipswich Town and a fully deserved victory at the Boleyn Ground followed, and, by New Years Eve, we had climbed into seventh place.

We have not been any higher since, adverse weather against Derby County and Peterborough United can probably be to blame for five points, but defeats at Leeds United and Southampton were difficult to stomach.

Our Premier League Parachute payments are slashed from the start of 2012/2013,and logic dictates that when you also factor in the imminent FFP ruling, promotion will become harder as the years begin to progress.

When relegated, did anyone genuinely believe that, two years later, we would have failed to earn a play-off spot, at the very least?

Evidently, the final 14 games of the season will determine whether that is the case, but, if it becomes a reality, it cannot be classed as anything but failure.

Eddie currently enjoys a greater win percentage as Burnley manager than Owen Coyle.

I doubt he would be as arrogant to liken promotion to “leading us out of the wilderness”, but Howe will ultimately be judged on his ability to get us out of this division.

I am sure I am not alone in wishing him every success with this aim.