AN 18-mile traffic jam on the A1 on Saturday turned Padiham's journey north to take on Crook Town in the second qualifying round of the this season's FA Vase competition, into a nightmare four-and-a-half-hour journey.
It caused the scheduled kick-off time to be delayed by half an hour and gave the Padiham players little or no preparation time, which showed as the Storks found themselves 2-0 down at half-time through goals by David Snow on 15 minutes and Paul Bailes on 38 minutes.
Padiham fought back in the second half to pull a goal back three minutes after the restart when Lee Howe's converted a Darren Fullard free kick to reduce the deficit to 2-1.
James Gill hit the Crook Town crossbar with an overhead kick, John Harrison and Gill went close with further attempts on goal as Padiham did everything but get the all-important second strike.
But the Storks ran out of time and had to accept an early exit from this year's competition.
CROOK TOWN ...2 PADIHAM ...1
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