Radcliffe Borough 2 Accrington Stanley 3

ACCRINGTON staged a dramatic fight back to take all three points off promotion rivals Radcliffe Borough in front of a bumper 890 crowd at Stainton Park. Trailing 2-0 the Reds scored three times in the last 18 minutes to climb into third place in Division One.

The Reds struggled to make any impact in the first half and the normally reliable Steve Caswell almost gifted Paul Mullin a goal on five minutes but he curled his shot wide of the goal.

Five minutes later Mullin, previously a transfer target for Stanley, evaded Jonathan Smith to latch on to a long ball but his dipping shot went just over the crossbar. Mullin then had a third scoring chance on 12 minutes but again he fired over.

Stanley's first chance came after 18 minutes when Mark Shirley played a crossfield ball to Russell Payne, who made a strong run down the right, squared the ball to player manager John Coleman, but his shot was saved by former Reds goalkeeper Steve Berryman.

Radcliffe took the lead four minutes from the break, Jeff Parker had a shot turned round the post by Jamie Speare and from Tony Whealing's corner, Ian Lunt stole in unmarked at the far post to head home.

Stanley almost equalised in the 45 minute as a fierce 20 yard shot by Jimmy Bell, who had replaced the injured Coleman, was pushed away by Berryman. Five minutes into stoppage time Borough were almost gifted a second goal as Speare picked up a Smith back pass but the resulting free kick 12 yards out was blasted into the Reds' wall by Mark Dempsey. The Reds came out after the break and dominated the opening 20 minutes but their promotion hopes looked to be slipping away when Radcliffe increased their lead on 67 minutes. Speare made a dreadful hash of a clearance and the ball fell straight to Lunt who chipped the ball over the stranded keeper to net his second goal of the game.

Accrington's incredible comeback began on 72 minutes when Speare launched a huge kick upfield which bounced into the Borough penalty area where Bell shrugged off his marker to hammer the ball beyond Berryman.

Cheered on by a massive following Stanley drew level four minutes later, Shirley's corner was met by Smith who rose above the Borough defence to score with a powerful header.

Borough did the have the ball in Stanley's net on 77 minutes but Mullin's effort was disallowed for offside. With Radcliffe rocking on the ropes the Reds pressed for a winner, Bell saw his looping header from Caswell's cross just go over the bar.

The Stanley supporters went into raptures two minutes from the end as a brilliant run by Shirley found substitute Steve Carragher in the penalty area and he coolly slotted the ball past Berryman from eight yards to net his tenth goal of the season.

Two wins from their final two games starting at home to Belper Town next Monday afternoon will clinch a return to the Premier Division for Stanley.