BORO BOW TO LIVELY LINNETS

RADCLIFFE BORO...1

BURSCOUGH...2

Unibond League Premier Division

THE new season may only be two games old but Boro boss Kevin Glendon will already be making changes.

After watching his charges from behind the dug-out wall, after receiving a five match touch-line ban, he was obviously far from impressed with what he saw, as his side went down to a superior Burscough outfit.

"The way we played was foreign to me," he said.

"I've never advocated belting the ball down field, we played right into their hands. We allowed them to boss midfield and we were second to the ball too many times.

"Up front Phil Denney gave his all but Rory Patterson should have produced so much more than he did, and to be fair they deserved it.

One of Glendon's summer signing targets was Burscough skipper and centreback Steve McNulty, and Boro's tactics played straight into his hands, as he marshalled his defence well to snuff out most of Boro's threats.

As for Saturday's visitors Bridlington Town, they can expect to see a different Boro side.

"There'll be changes, both positional and in terms of personnel, because one or two didn't take the opportunity to show what they can do," said Glendon.

It was a frenetic opening five minutes from both sides and after an early Heald effort Burscough began to get the upper hand, with Underwood and Blakeman shooting just wide.

There were some crunching tackles going in from both sides in addition to some enterprising approach play.

Boro scored first, although it has to be said it was against the run of play.

Three minutes before the break Heald showed dogged determination to win the ball on halfway, out on the left touch line.

He fed Denney who slid a pass through to Carden, he beat the offside trap to race into the penalty area.

There he drew the keeper off his line before calmly passing to the unmarked Patterson to his right, and he gleefully slid the ball over the line.

Burscough emerged for the second half determined to get back on terms and succeeded within five minutes.

Striker Paul Gedman began and finished the move, his initial diving header bringing a superb reflex diving save out of Hurst.

But Boro cleared the ball only as far as tricky winger Matt Perry, his fierce low drive cannoned of a post to fall nicely for Gedman, who whipped in the rebound with Hurst out of position.

Glendon had obviously seen enough and within two minutes he replaced the disappointing Patterson with Jamie Baguley and Spencer made way for Davey Luker.

The changes perked Boro up and shortly afterwards a well worked move found Wilson in space 30 yards out and his stinging shot forced Newnes into a fingertip save.

But the danger was always there from the visitors and on the hour Hurst was forced into two more fine saves.

On 68 minutes Battersby replaced Wilson but within a minute Burscough were in front.

Perry, who had been threatening down the right all night, pounced on a through ball and cut inside to beat Hurst low to his right.

On 78 minutes Boro were awarded a free kick 35 yards out and Battersby's Beckham-esque swerving, dipping kick was tipped over again by Newnes.

But far too often Boro lumped the ball up into the air which was easy fare for the Burscough defence and the visitors coped well with the pressure exerted on them to demonstrate their own pretensions to promotion and possibly the title.

BORO: Hurst, Duffy, Heald, Kelly, J. Foster, Spencer, Hill, Carden, Denney, Patterson, Wilson. Subs: Luker (for Spencer, 51), Baguley (for Patterson, 51), Battersby (for Wilson, 68)