Clitheroe ran out worthy winners in their first ever visit to Avro albeit the gloss was taken off the victory by a serious injury to left back Jack Sloan.

Clitheroe have latterly taken quite a shine to artificial surfaces after many seasons of struggling, and the Avro surface was no different. The first 10 minutes saw more of a home team threat, with dead ball situations providing most scope for success. However, Clitheroe were always a threat down the left with Sloan and a resurgent Veron Parny proving a handful. The first real chance of the game fell to Clitheroe on 12 minutes, when Sefton Gonzales’s shot from a corner was cleared off the line, with the impeccable Will Hall heading the follow up against the bar. Progressively, Clitheroe turned up the pressure and the home side at times found themselves rushing to defend their goal. Gonzales was proving a real menace to the home defence and he only just failed to connect with his head on a Sloan cross on 26 minutes, before glancing a header narrowly wide from a Richie Baker free kick minutes later.

Clitheroe deservedly took the lead on 35 minutes, when Sloan’s shot after great approach play was blocked, with Sloan laying the rebound to Danny Wilkins whose shot from the edge of the box was diverted home by Jack Massey. This put the wind in Massey’s sails and he shot narrowly wide after controlling the ball well in the box. As half time approached, the lead was doubled when Veron bent a great free kick goalwards, forcing an excellent save, only for Gonzales to recycle the ball at full stretch, leaving Carmeron Lancaster free to thump the ball home from close range.

There was little change in the second half as Clitheroe kicked down the slope and Veron in particular was proving a real handful, often at the end of some industrial tackling. Minutes after Sloan had been carried off on 70 minutes, Parny’s angled shot from distance hit the woodwork only for Massey to control the rebound and, with the goal gaping, to hit the bar with his fierce shot. Still Avro barely created a chance, but as injury time ticked over, Hakan Burton pulled off an excellent full length stop only for the ball to come back seconds later forcing another great diving save from a header, but the prone forward was still able to prod home. Tempers briefly flared but once Burton had comfortably taken a shot from distance in his midriff, the whistle was blown and the points were Clitheroe’s.

Team: Burton, Azam, Sloan, Teague, Lancaster, Hall, Baker, Wilkins, Gonzales, Massey, Parny
Subs (used): Rouse, Barlow, Dent
Subs (not used): Dorney, Davidson