Radcliffe Borough 3 Ossett Town 4 - AS cup-ties go, this was a cracker. End-to-end attractive football, plenty of goals -- and good ones at that -- just the wrong result as far as Boro were concerned.

The Boro faithful might have been forgiven for thinking they had ended up with the easier task after Osset surprisingly knocked out Premier Division outfit Bradford Park Avenue to secure a trip to Stainton Park.

The Yorkshire side had struggled in the first half of the season and are still down in the bottom half of the table. That stemmed from losing several key players after failing to win promotion last season because their ground was not up to the required standard.

A clear-the-air talk appears to have worked wonders as Ossett have not lost yet this year and looked a lively, dangerous side in this cup-tie.

Indeed, by the end of this game this was not a shock result -- but the way it started certainly was.

Osset won a corner on the left in the 11th minute and their key player, Robert Bloomfield, who was at the centre of everything, lofted the ball into the corner of the net straight from the flag kick.

Ossett goalkeeper Mick Clark was alert to the danger when Boro replied in the 15th minute. Richard Battersby burst into the box from the right onto a Jody Banim pass, but Clark dashed from his line to whip the ball off Batt's toes before he could get a shot in.

The visitors held onto their lead until the 25th minute when midfielder Barrie Keeling blasted in a cross from the right. Bloomfield tried to stop the ball with his hands, but only succeeded in adding insult to injury as the goal counted and he went into the referee's book.

Eight minutes later the unpronounceable Steve Oleksewycz stole Bloomfield's -- and everybody else's -- thunder with a goal Jody Banim himself would have been proud of.

Cutting in from the left his dazzling footwork took him past three men before he blasted an unstoppable low shot past the despairing dive of Danny Hurst in the Boro goal.

Ossett would have been full value for a 2-1 half-time lead, but Boro turned things round dramatically with two goals in a minute just before the break.

Neill Hardy ran in to meet Tony Whealing's corner with a brilliant glancing header that levelled the scores again and Keeling put Boro's noses in front with another fine header from Banim's left wing cross as the half went into stoppage time.

It looked like Boro might hold onto that lead for a narrow victory. For chances were few and far between in the second half before Bloomfield once again levelled matters with another header from Danny Davidson's 75th minute cross.

Bloomfield went close again three minutes later with a header from James Walshaw's left wing cross and in the 80th minute he took centre stage again to claim his hat-trick with the matchwinning penalty after Walshaw had been brought down in the box.

There were no complaints from the Boro players about the spot-kick award and there would have been no complaints from any neutrals among the crowd after this thoroughly entertaining, action-packed cup-tie.

RADCLIFFE BOROUGH: Hurst 6; Battersby 6, Kelly 6, Bean 6, Price 6, Whealing 7; Keeling 8, Spooner 6, Wilson 6; Hardy 7, Banim 6. Substitutes: Elliott (for Wilson 67 mins) 5, Spencer (for Battersby 71 mins), Landon (for Banim 86 mins).

UniBond League Challenge Cup Quarter-final