THERE was both good and bad to come out of Radcliffe Borough's last two games.

The good news is that they now seem to be scoring with a fluency that will stand them in good stead during the coming months.

The bad news, however, is that they are starting to leak goals at an alarming rate: they have now conceded ten in the last four games, and no matter how good your strikers are, you are always going to struggle if the defence is not solid.

A brilliant comeback against Harrogate Town on Saturday rounded off a miserable week for visiting manager Paul Marshall.

Following an emergency board meeting last Thursday evening, the club decided that recent results have not been good enough and, as a consequence, Marshall's job is now up for grabs.

"To be 2-0 down at half time was a real kick in the teeth. For the first 25 minutes I thought we played some great football," said Glendon of the Harrogate clash.

"We played with three up front and always had good width with Tony Carroll and Joe Connor, who was magnificent throughout the game, able to move out to the wings.

"I told the lads at half time that we shouldn't be hanging on in a game like that, we should have been comfortable going into the second half rather than trying to come back from a two-goal deficit." Although they did turn the game around - and quite brilliantly too - Tuesday's Challenge Cup game against Witton was proof of why simply scoring goals is not enough.

After coming from a goal down three times, the visitors' extra time winner proved to be one comeback too many for Boro.

Glendon knew exactly where the fault lay: "I thought it was a smashing game for the spectators, I'm just worried about the amount of goals we're giving away from silly individual errors. It's obviously an area we'll have to look at.

"It's scandalous really, we never give ourselves a chance to get in front and end up chasing the game.

"In all fairness we've had to chop and change the defence much more than we'd have liked to so far this season.

"I haven't been able to play the same back four for more than two games together and it's very difficult to get any kind of understanding when that happens."

He's also sure what needs to be done this season: "I don't mean it to sound flippant, but the good thing was that this was a cup tie. Our main priority has to be the league and if cup runs suffer, then so be it.

"Having said that, the FA Cup is a bit special and we could do with a good run in that to get some money into the club."

Boro hit the Wembley trail in the first qualifying round when they face NW Trains League Division One side Clitheroe at Stainton Park on Saturday, who have themselves experienced the Twin Towers recently, losing to Brigg Town in the final of the FA Vase in 1996.

"We'd be very disappointed if we didn't get a result against Clitheroe, but the way we're playing at the back, anything could happen," said Glendon.

During the last three home games, the Boro fans have been treated to no less than 14 goals in league and cup competition.

Win, lose or draw, one thing is certain - you get your money's worth at Stainton Park!

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