Clitheroe nicked all 3 points in an entertaining absorbing encounter at a wet and blustery Shawbridge this afternoon. The blues were out of the box and running in 2 mins when Simon Nangle split the Farsley defence with a great pass, Danny Smith timed his run superbly, feigned to shoot and committed the last defender, switched inside opening the goal up, kept his composure and despatched the ball with a low crisp finish into the Farsley net. Cue some exhibition football for 15 mins as the blues started stringing fluent attacking moves together and tested the Farsley keeper who produced several fine last ditch saves to keep his side in it. Unfortunately it was only 1-0 at HT and you felt a little cheated as the performance was surely worthy of a 3 goal lead, with Simon Nangle, Mark Threlfall, Danny Smith, Chris Dykes etc well on top and unlucky not to score more.
Second half was far more difficult, playing into a blustery wind and heavy rain proved a test and Farsley built the pressure forcing Richie Mottram to make several good saves and his all round handling and speed off the line was excellent, not to mention a penalty save which deservedly earned him the M.o.M award. It finished up a hanging on for grim job last few mins but fortunately a rather soft looking penalty awarded to Farsley in the last minute cannoned to safety off the cross bar - cue jubilant scenes. A really gutsy performance, solid defensively and in patches, some real quality fluent attacking play, so well done to all on a very good hard earned 3 points.

Report by Simon Scott
Man of the Match: Richie Mottram