Brighouse Town 3 Clitheroe 4

An unchanged Blues team stormed out of the blocks and were three goals to the good after just 19 minutes.

Sefton Gonzales opened the scoring after 7 minutes, when he picked up Louis Mayers through ball to calmly chip over Brighouse keeper Paul Hagreen.

It was 2-0 on 15 minutes when Gonzales headed down to Scott Harries whose delightful one-two with Mayers, saw him have time to slot the ball past Hagreen.

Goal number three came on 19 minutes. Once again Gonzales and Harries were involved with the latter’s cheeky back-heel enough to deceive Hagreen and Brandon Barski had the simple task on tapping in from close range.

Brighouse came back in to the game strongly towards the end of the first half. A forty yard run from Tom Haigh was only stopped when Chris Lynch brought him down for a free kick and a yellow card for the Blues defender.

Half time: Brighouse Town 0 Clitheroe 3

David Lynch had a good chance to extend the Blues lead when his shot from outside the box was tipped on to the crossbar by Hagreen.

The home side with nothing to lose went for broke and after several close shaves, they pulled a goal back on 59 minutes. It was an attempted clearance by Danny Brady which went horribly wrong and it bounced past Ben Woodhead in to the net.

Brighouse pulled it back to 3-2 on 62 minutes, when Danny Facey took the ball off Brady and hit a rasping shot in to Woodhead’s top left hand corner.

Tempers started to fray a bit and the referee booked Simon Garner, Harries and two Brighouse players in the space of a few minutes.

With two minutes remaining of normal time, Brighouse levelled the scores. With the Blues giving the ball away in their own half a quick break saw Woodhead come out to save a one on one, but the ball rebounded twice to Steve Hollingworth to finish. This prompted a mini pitch invasion from the delighted Brighouse bench.

The drama was not finished as in the third minute of stoppage time came the Blues winner. Scott Harries took the ball on the left flank and dribbled brilliantly past three defenders in to the box, before squaring the ball perfectly for Gonzales to side foot home. This time it was the delirious Blues bench who were dancing on the pitch.

A brilliant end to a great game of football which will be remembered for a long time by the travelling Blues supporters.

Blues line up: Ben Woodhead, Jimmy Heywood, James Walker, Chris Lynch, Danny Brady, Simon Garner, Scott Harries, David Lynch, Sefton Gonzales, Louis Mayers, Brandon Barski (Kurt Willoughby 71). Subs not used; Wes Benjamin, Ross Dent, Scott Bakkor & Michael Hampson.