RADCLIFFE BORO...0

BURSCOUGH...2

Unibond League Premier Division Play-off Semi-final

LIFE in Conference North will have to wait another season for Radcliffe Borough, as this semi-final defeat condemned the club to another season in the Unibond Premier.

"We didn't have a striker out there who could finish anything off," was Boro boss Kevin Glendon's assessment of the game.

"It was asking a lot of Josh Mitten, he's been out injured for five weeks and was struggling with the pace of the game, which meant we just looked blunt up front, although our approach play was really good." The opening quarter of the game was played mainly in the middle third of the pitch.

Having lost 2-1 to the Linnets at Stainton Park in the final league game seven days before, Boro should have been aware of what Burscough were capable of.

Although on 11 minutes they caught the Boro defence flat-footed. Awarded a free kick just inside the Boro half, it was on taken quickly and met David Eaton on the edge of the box, his shot just looped over Danny Hurst's bar.

The visitors initially just sit back and soaked up the Boro pressure. When they did attack the pace of wingman Matt Parry in particular caused Boro all sorts of problems.

On 15 minutes Josh Mitten chased a ball down the right channel and his low shot brought a good save out of Burscough keeper Matt Boswell.

A minute later, Tony Carroll dribbled into the Burscough box and beat two defenders, but Boswell raced off his line to blast the ball into the stand, off Carroll's toe.

On 19 minutes, good cross-field passing ended with a looping ball being floated into the Bursough six-yard box, and Mitten got a toe to it, but no power, and it went wide. Three minutes later Simon Kelly got his head to a free kick, but it went wide.

Shortly afterwards the visitors should have taken the lead.

From a corner on the right Danny Hurst produced a great reaction save to put the ball out for another corner.

From that flag kick another shot was fired in and Tony Whealing this time saved his team-mates' blushes by clearing off the line.

Hurst was down quickly again to smother the ball at Ryan Bowen's feet, as Burscough began to win the battle for midfield and push forward more, with the mounting pressure paying off on 38 minutes.

A clever through ball split the Boro midfield and defence to leave Liam Blakeman unmarked with a clear run at goal. He shot low to beat the advancing Hurst with ease to put the visitors 1-0 up at half-time.

Glendon decided to go for broke on 56 minutes by introducing all three substitutes, John Foster, Steve Spencer and Gary Sampson, for Richard Battersby, Karl Marginson and Tony Carroll.

Foster's introduction allowed Kelly to move up into midfield, with Simon Carden in turn joining Mitten up front, as Glendon sought to shake things up.

Soon after Linnets' keeper Boswell had to get down fast to pounce on a Carden shot through a sea of legs, and minutes later the same player was put through again, but chose to shoot straight at Boswell.

On 74 minutes Mitten's free kick from 22 yards beat the wall, but the curl and lift also beat the bar by a good couple of feet.

Boro then had three shots in as many seconds, but the first two were blocked and the last one cleared away, as they threw everything they had at the Linnets' goal in an effort to get back on terms.

More pressure was rewarded with a glut of corners, but Boro's season-long inability to make the most of set-piece opportunities continued, and they were all squandered.

Four minutes from time a well crafted four-man passing move the length of the pitch set-up Kelly, but again he shot over the bar.

Seconds away from injury time, Carden's shot was pushed out by the keeper for yet another corner, and he was forced to punch clear again from the resulting flag kick.

Having soaked up all that Boro could throw at them, Burscough then made the game safe in the 92nd minute.

Not for the first time they caught the Boro defence too far forward, and Parry's shot was saved by Hurst, but the ball fell nicely for the unmarked Gary Martindale, and he buried the ball in the bottom corner with Hurst stranded off his line.

Boro were therefore denied a place in the play-off final at the Horsfall Stadium, where Burscough were beaten by Bradford Park Avenue 2-0 to claim the final place on offer in the brave new football world of Conference North.

Glendon will now, therefore, focus all his attention on winning the Unibond Premier title next season and going up as champions. Nothing less will satisfy him.

"Obviously I'm disappointed at not finishing in the top 13 and then not making it through the play offs," he said.

"But I'll feel far worse if we don't win promotion next season.

"I need to sit down with the chairman to make sure we get things sorted so that we achieve that. Top of the list is an out-and-out scorer, there's no escaping it.

"If we'd have had Jody Banim out there against Burscough we'd have won 4-0, that's no exaggeration."

On Saturday Banim was a spectator, don't be surprised if he's a participant next season.

BORO: Hurst, Battersby, Whealing, Kelly, Luker (c), Duffy, Marginson, Carden, Carroll, Mitten, Price. Subs: Foster.J, Spencer, Sampson