TOP TWO GRIND OUT DRAW

Reigning West Cheshire One Champions West Kirby took a huge step to retaining their title with a goalless draw against a vastly improved Runcorn Town.

West Kirby had two good chances to open the scoring in the first ten minutes with Town's defence looking shaky, but after that it was rather comfortable for the rest of the half with the home side content to get to half time scoreless with a strong wind blowing against them.

Town had a great chance to take the lead after 11 minutes when Ste Latham played Michael Boyle in on the right, with the winger getting into the box and forcing a good save from the keeper. The wind was spoiling things somewhat with goal chances at a premium, but Latham, Kyle Hamid and Will Dolan were dictating the game in midfield and the defence rarely under pressure.

Jason Carey almost broke the deadlock at the start of the second half with a fierce shot that the keeper did well to block with his legs, with West Kirby content to try to play long ball's to try and get behind Town's back line of Matty Jones and Greg Byrne.

The home side rarely looked to attack and were happy to see out a goalless draw, with Town creating the better chances, most of which came with the introduction of Aarron Brown who replaced the injured Simon Burton.

Brown had a couple of opportunities to score, the best being a snap shot from inside the box which went over the bar. Hamid also saw a drive from the edge of the box blocked, with defender Matty Jones putting a header from a corner wide of the post.

West Kirby's best two chances came from balls over the top for their forward's to run onto. Twice it almost worked, once with Chris Barrow whooting wide of the right hand post and once with Kev Ryan firing well over from ten yards.

Posted at 12:12 on Sunday 29th March 2009 - Viewed 246 times