TOWN CRUSH ASHVILLE, RESERVES LOSE FOCUS

Runcorn Town crushed Ashville Reserves 4-0 and made it twelve league games unbeaten as they consolidated second place in West Cheshire League Two.

Ashville were in good form coming into the match, but they found themselves behind after just four minutes with George Donnelly scoring. The visitors' defence parted from Aaron Brown's throw in with Donnelly running clear and slotting past the keeper.

Town continued to create a whole host of chances but could not get the second goal that would have killed the game. Ryan Wade had a goal disallowed for offside, with Town's offside statistic probably reaching double figures with half of those marginal at the least.

The second goal finally arrived after 37 minutes when man-of-the-match Sean Tierney put Brown clear, with the forward waiting until the keeper committed himself before finding the corner of the net.

Ashville gifted Town their third after 53 minutes with a terrible attempted backpass in the box that Donnelly converted from close range, and Brown notched his second four minutes later with a cool finish from inside the box after breaking clear.

Meanwhile Runcorn Town Reserves lost 3-2 at FOCUS in controversial circumstances with the home side scoring twice in what ended up as TEN minutes of time added on.

FOCUS opened the scoring in the 43rd minute through Phil Davies, who beat both the Town offside trap and keeper Adam Judge to the ball to score into an empty net.

Whatever Kev Looker said at half time certainly worked with two goals in the first ten minutes putting Town ahead.

On 48 minutes, Matty Johnson beat the FOCUS left bak and was unlucky to hit the post, but Connor Taylor followed up to tuck away the equaliser. Seven minutes later, Johnson again got the better of the full back before drawing the center half and playing in Taylor who scored in the far corner for his seventh goal in just seven games.

Town controlled the game from then on with Focus offering nothing other than the long ball. However three minutes into injury time, a cross from the right wasn't cleared with Davies poking the ball home to grab the equaliser.

FOCUS were not done though and took the lead in controversial circumstances three minutes later. The ball had rolled out of play on the goalline with Reece Conlan knocking the ball back towrds the keeper for the goal kick. However with no whistle coming from the ref, Forbes Duff pushed the ball into the net with the referee awarding the goal.

He was immediatly surrounded by irate Town players protesting, with the referee ignoring all and allowing the goal.

Click here for match report

Posted at 19:53 on Sunday 18th February 2007 - Viewed 232 times