Warrington Town 1

Bacup Borough 3

BACUP proved what a difference six months can make by sending Town crashing to a miserable defeat at Cantilever Park.

It was hardly the best preparation for Town's tough F.A. Vase first round tie at Curzon Ashton tomorrow, Saturday, kick-off 3pm.

A Warrington performance which was high on effort but low on quality on Saturday was a far cry from the 8-0 thrashing they dished out to Borough in April.

The match started brightly enough with Warrington opening up the visitors' defence mainly due to some industrious play from Steve Smith.

After just four minutes Robbie Preidt and Kevin Tyrell created space for Smith to dart into the penalty area but he sliced his shot wide.

Five minutes later the collapse began as Karl Stanley was given room to launch a cross into the box.

Nicky Taylor steered the ball goalbound, forcing a great parry from Neil McCormack, who then recovered in time to stop the ball from falling into the net but could not stop Taylor from forcing home the rebound.

Lee Holden was unlucky not to equalise when he powered a header from Preidt's cross but goalkeeper Adam Potts brilliantly blocked the shot.

On 15 minutes Warrington's right wing looked frail again. Damian Moran found enough space to send a probing cross into the box and giant striker Stuart Farnell took advantage of a free header to double the lead.

The second period started controversially as Tyrell wrestled centre back David Betts off the ball before slotting past Potts at the second attempt.

But the linesman had raised his flag after spotting the offence and the whole defence had already come to a standstill by the time the goal was scored.

Yet after a furious argument from the incensed Bacup team and a brief conference between the flag bearer and the referee the goal stood.

Celebrations were shortlived though as Stanley's cross from the right was tucked into the bottom corner by Mark Rawstron moments later.

Warrington dominated the rest of the match and enjoyed the majority of possession without creating any serious chances as Borough defended in numbers.

Team: Neil McCormack, Andy Tague, Dave Pick, Ian Callaghan, Dave Tickle, Lee Holden, Steve Smith, Kevin Tyrell, Gavin McDonald, Robbie Preidt, Neil Morgan. Subs: Jed Bushell, Andy Harris, Alan Blair.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.