Radcliffe Borough 1, Chorley 4

7:25pm Saturday 19th April 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

A flurry of second half goals ensured a comfortable victory for the Magpies.

There was little sense of the excitement to come for Chorley in a scrappy first half in which each keeper had just one save each to make.

Chorley's Peter Collinge tipped an early long range effort round the post while Radcliffe's Phil Priestley, playing against his former club, saved well from the feet of Adam Farrell when the teeange striker looked like going clean through to score.

The only light relief for the crowd was the rare sight of a referee with a sense of humour as he gave the red card to three ducks (yes, you've got it, for fowl play) who persisted in wandering all over the pitch near the halfway line.

They would have been a lot safer waddling about in the penalty areas as thye would not have been disturbed by much football action.

It was a different story after the break as Jordan Goodeve opened the scoring for Chorley with an overhead kick which surprised Priestley.

Chorley's second came after Danny Pilkington had a mazy run on the on the wing and Priestley could only parry his shot and Mike Eckersley pounced to score from five yards.

Eckersley scored again from the penalty spot after he himself had been brought down in the box by Priestley who was ent off for the offence.

A trademark free kick from Mark Drew form just outside the penalty area which dipped over the wall into the corner of the net completed the scoring for Chorley before Radcliffe scored a late consolation.