IT hasn't been a good week for Brunlea.

Thumped 12-0 on the opening day of the season by Foulridge and then another 13 hammered past them by Clitheroe.

And, in between, four of their players decided to leave and seek pastures new.

Newcastle United thought they had it tough.

However, in the 10 players they managed to put out, they had a side who battled against all the odds and a side who were far superior on the day.

The heads didn't drop as the goals went in at regular intervals and, in Alex Thompson, Brunlea had a goalkeeper whose bravery eventually took its toll as one clash too many forced him to leave the field.

However it was a battering of another kind that Thompson and his back four had to endure with four-goal Jake Chadwick causing most of the damage.

The game was barely a minute old when Chadwick opened the scoring with a close range effort as Wolves looked to erase the memory of their own first game of the season defeat.

After that it took the gifted left footed player a while to find the target as in two carbon copy attacks, he rounded Thompson only to fire wide of the mark.

But the second goal wasn't long in coming and Chadwick had strike partner Michael Barker to thank after his shot was well saved by Thompson but fell into Chadwick's path to score.

Luca Musker grabbed a third when he latched onto Phil North's fine through ball before Barker himself finally got on the scoresheet to score number four.

By now Brunlea had their backs well and truly against the wall but, whenever possible, they would try and launch counter attacks. And Will Driver and Danny Endicott did just that before the move broke down on the edge of the Wolves area.

Then North had to be alert to cut out a fine ball by Luke Scott with Endicott lurking just behind.

But any chance of comeback was snuffed out when Chadwick completed his hat-trick with a powerful close range volley.

Chadwick's fourth came after a fine run from Barker who was again denied by the superb Thompson. But again luck was not on his side and the ball broke to Chadwick to score.

Brunlea was glad to see the back of Chadwick, who was substituted at half time but Wolves did not relent and their next goal was a real cracker.

Tom Hibble, who played in goal in the first half, fed the ball back to Dominic Brown who found Liam Gidlow on the edge of the area. Gidlow turned and curled a beautiful shot over the stranded Thompson.

Hibble then found the net himself two minutes later with a powerful drive from inside the area.

The busy Thompson produced another fine save to deny Barker but the ball did not run kindly and Barker tapped home the rebound.

Wolves moved into double figures thanks to Oliver Nuttall before controversy surrounded the 11th when Hibble clattered into Thompson and, while the keeper was down, Barker fired the ball into the unguarded goal - despite calls from the Brunlea manager to stop the game.

Another clattering for Thompson proved to be one too many and Jamie Atkinson took over in the nets. But there was nothing he could do to prevent a late double from right back Simon Ryan who scored direct from a free kick then fired in from outside the area.

BRUNLEA: Alex Thompson, Jamie Atkinson, Shaun McDeritt, Nathan Walne, Kyle Allum, Danny Jones, Danny Endicott, Luke Scott, James Thompson and Will Driver.

CLITHEROE WOLVES: Tom Hibble, Simon Ryan, Dominic Brown, Phil North, Gino Peregrine, Marcus Pratt, Oliver Nuttall, Liam Gidlow, Jake Chadwick, Michael Barker and Luca Musker. Substitutes: Jack Fielding, Daniel Hull and Ray Roocroft.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.