Clitheroe 1 - 1 Trafford

By Jack Towers

After the frustrating display on Saturday it had to be a better performance from the Blues in Tuesday's playoff encounter with Trafford.

From the whistle it looked to be just that with Clitheroe coming firing out looking to take Trafford apart.

George West came close just three minutes in when his half volley was saved beautifully by Shenton in the Trafford net.

Just a minute later Jack Egan was played clean through but his placed effort just clipped the inside of the post when everyone thought it was in.

Straight after however, Trafford reminded us that there was two teams in this match when David Frost with a clean strike at goal, fired over.

Clitheroe enjoyed possession and as the half went on we had another huge chance as Charlie Russell hit an exceptional strike towards the top corner, which would have beaten most goalkeepers in the league, but Shenton was there again with an incredible save.

Shortly after however, from a corner, the ball came in and after several headers towards goal Jack Egan finally met it and headed into the roof of the net to give Clitheroe the lead.

Clitheroe then came forward more and more to take Trafford apart but just could not find that all important second goal.

Trafford then came right back into the game and Blues were being made to work very heavily at the back and Trafford looked certain to score if it wasn't for some heart on the line defending by Ross Dent to deny.

Half-time: Blues 1-0 Trafford.

Clitheroe did not look like they came out for the second half starting very slowly.

It was then only a matter of time before Trafford exposed this and they found the equaliser when Palma, unmarked in the box, slotted easily past Thompson.

Thompson was then made to work several more times but came up with the goods to keep the Blues in it.

Clitheroe just could not get going in the second half and probably could not believe their luck when after a darting and superb run by Rigby he's brought down and the referee points straight to the spot.

Step up Kurt Willoughby, you would bet your last dollar on the bagsman scoring but it wasn't to be as yet again Shenton came up with the goods to round off a man of the match performance.

Full-time: Blues 1-1 Trafford

Team : Chris Thompson, Jacob Gregory, Stephen Rigby, Ian Rowlands, Danny Brady (c), Ross Dent, Joe Mitchell (Adam Bolton), Charlie Russell, Kurt Willoughby, Jack Egan (Dimitri Tuanzebe), George West (Brad Carroll). Subs - Dimitri Tuanzebe, Brad Carroll, Adam Bolton. Not used - Jamie Hodgson.