RADCLIFFE BOROUGH 5 OSSETT TOWN 6

THIS was definitely not one for the purist -- but if it was goals you were after, Stainton Park was the place to be on Saturday afternoon.

The 174 spectators got full value in that respect as first Radcliffe's defence, and then Ossett's, capitulated in dramatic fashion.

The visitors were 5-0 up by the 51st minute and giving Radcliffe a real pasting.

Lee Evans, playing the last game of a one-month loan spell from Stockport County, pulled a goal back for Boro on the hour and the boot was very much on the other foot after that as Radcliffe came within a whisker of rescuing a point.

Strangely, it was Boro who had the best of the early chances before Ossett started their rout, with Lunt twice having shots blocked in the box and Evans forcing Ossett keeper Neil Bennett into a fine one-handed, diving save.

The visitors left back, Paul Sykes, got the ball rolling as far as the goals were concerned with the first after 13 minutes.

He was given far too much time and space on the left-hand side of the penalty area to latch onto a cross from the right and had no trouble firing past Danny Hurst in the Boro goal.

It was a goal that incensed Boro boss Kevin Glendon. He obviously wasn't happy with the way Simon Kelly and Richard Battersby had been performing, because immediately after the goal, with just 14 minutes gone, he made the unprecedented move of substituting the pair, sending Levi Edwards and Ian Callaghan on in their place.

Craig Taylor, who started the game in midfield after his impressive performance after coming on as a substitute in the ill-fated Marsden Trophy tie against Morecambe last week, switched to right back, Callaghan slotted into Kelly's position and Edwards went into midfield.

It didn't really make a lot of difference, defence-wise. Chris Annan fired in Ossett's second in the 21st minute from the penalty spot after David Bean was adjudged to have fouled Michael Midwood in the box.

Ryan Gray added a third with a near post shot on 27 minutes -- and that's how it stayed up to the break, with a Lunt shot that was tipped over the bar Boro's best effort amidst the deluge.

It didn't get any better after the interval for Boro. In the first minute of the second half they were penalised after James Price was judged to have handled the ball on the line and Annan made it 4-0 with his second from the spot.

Midwood made it 5-0 five minutes later when he smashed in a loose ball following a corner.

Evans started Boro's comeback with a shot from the left after Lunt set him up. Then it was Boro's turn for a bit of spot luck when Lunt was bowled over in the box by Mark Lambert and Mark Dempsey stepped up to make it 5-2.

Any thoughts of rescuing anything from this game were still at the back of most Boro fans' minds. And that seemed to be the best place for them when Matthew Smithard caught Hurst off his line and beat him with a great lob from 30 yards out.

That should have been enough to finish most teams off -- but not the Boro.

Dave Collins, a half-time substitute for Callaghan, answered Smithard when he floated a lovely shot over Bennett in the 77th minute to make it 6-3.

The excitement began to mount when Bean slid in to turn the ball over the Ossett line in the 79th minute, but it wasn't until the 88th minute that Evans claimed his second with a header from a corner.

As one spectator said, 'another couple of minutes and we'd have got a point'.

As it was, Boro slipped to their third successive league defeat, putting that bit more pressure on them, despite their games in hand, as they seek to climb into a respectable, mid-table position.

RADCLIFFE BOROUGH: Hurst 6, Battersby 5, Whealing 5, Kelly 5, Bean 6, Dempsey 6, Lunt 7, Taylor 6, Wilson 6, Evans 6, Price 5. Substitutes: Edwards (for Battersby, 14 mins) 6, Callaghan (for Kelly, 14 mins) 6, Collins (for Callaghan, 45 mins) 6. Attendance: 174.