Boro bow out with hardly a whimper

TWO goals from home hitman Neil Spencer ended Radcliffe's interest in landing the trophy sponsored by the Marsden Building Society -- but do they care?

It's clear Kevin Glendon's main target this season is promotion to the UniBond Premier Division and he showed that with the team he put out at the first hurdle in this competition.

Virtually every position in the team was altered, with either new personnel coming in or someone being switched positionally.

Normally, Radcliffe's squad would be able to cope with that -- especially against opposition from a division lower. But last night in the drizzle, Boro were about as bright as the floodlights that vainly try to illuminate proceedings at Shawbridge.

They didn't manage a worthwhile shot on target and were easy pickings for Spencer and his team-mates as he struck in the 37th and 59th minutes to kill off Radcliffe's feeble challenge.

Boro sported the same, new "Celtic" away strip they had worn with such distinction in another much-maligned competition, the UniBond League Challenge Cup, when they took on Rossendale in a group match at Dark Lane recently.

The changes were rung there again, not as many admittedly, but the performance this time was light years away from the one we got on Tuesday night.

Spencer first goal saw him smack in a low shot from the right-hand side of the penalty box with Boro's defenders noticeable by their absence.

He put us all out of our misery 14 minutes into the second period when he rounded Boro's last defender and hit a smart shot past Ian Senior in the Radcliffe goal.

Boro boss Kevin Glendon said: "I needed to look at one or two things because of some decisions I had to make, but even with the team we put out it was only a couple of mistakes that cost us. It was a terrible game though."

RADCLIFFE BOROUGH: Senior 6, Walker 6, Price 6, S Kelly 5, Landon 5, E Kelly 6, Lunt 6, Farrelly 6, Kissock 6, Warton 5, Collins 5. Substitutes: Hurst, Whealing, Bean, G Wilson, S Wilson.