Clitheroe 4 Runcorn Linnets 1
Clitheroe firmly put their midweek drubbing at the hands of Hednesford behind them as they put on a fine display for the large home crowd.
Reverting to a more standard formation, Clitheroe not only looked hungrier but more settled as well. They also had the perfect start when after only two minutes, Mark Hughes floated in a quickly taken free kick and Louis Potts was alive to the keeper’s positioning and looped the ball over his head. This settled the Blues and whilst half chances came at both ends, Clitheroe were never out of control. On 25 minutes, Sefton Gonzales had a diving header go narrowly wide, before minutes later the excellent Emerich Poilly got on the end of a hanging Veron Parny cross, only for his header to go tamely wide. It took Runcorn 31 minutes before they had their first real chance as they whistled a shot across the face of the goal. Almost instantaneously, Parny went on a twisting 40 yard run, evading challenges as he went before he forced a smart save. Against the run of play, Runcorn levelled the score on 41 minutes as a long ball picked out their centre forward and he finished smartly. Stung by this, Clitheroe came straight back and Poilly picked up a low pass from Parny on the edge of the box and in one smooth movement he took the ball away from the advancing keeper and thumped the ball into the bottom corner.
The home side started the second half in a similar vein and in an almost carbon copy of the first goal, Gonzales headed beyond a back pedalling keeper, who only managed to push the ball on to the bar, before Sam Olawumi stooped to head home the loose ball. Five minutes later, a superb dummy by Parny left Poilly free with the ball, and with Parny racing beyond the defence pointing to where he wanted the ball, Poilly duly obliged and Parny threaded the ball through the keeper’s legs. Clitheroe held their iron grip on the game for the rest of the half, and were able to give Danny Wilkins, Cam Lancaster and Jordan Windass valuable game time after lengthy absences for all three.
TEAM: 1 Hakan Burton (C), 2 Jacob Hanson, 3 Dylan Dwyer, 4 Sam Olawumi, 5 Mark Hughes, 6 Emerich Poilly, 7 Veron Parny, 8 Ross Dent, 9 Sefton Gonzales, 10 Louis Potts, 11 Jake Connelly. SUBS USED: 12 Cameron Lancaster, 14 Danny Wilkins, 15 Jordan Windass, 16 Luke Gill. Not Used: 17 Connor High.