A Joe Rathbone penalty early in the second half was enough to ensure that the opening preseason fixture ended with honours even in an entertaining and highly competitive encounter.
The visitors thought that they had broken the deadlock within the first ten minutes, but an assistant referee’s flag for offside cut short their celebrations. Moments later Max Davidson could not get any power on a perfectly weighted chip into the penalty area from Jake Cottrell, but within a minute the home side were behind, when a cross from the left was bundled home inside the six yard box by Jake Thompson.
The remainder of the half was very even, with the main talking points being two penalty appeals which went unheeded. Michael Afuye’s mazy run ended with him going to ground in the box but the referee waved away the protests, whilst as the interval approached, Radcliffe felt that they they should have had a spot kick for handball when Sam Rathbone blocked a goalbound effort.
After the break, both sides made a host of changes, with the visitors fielding an entirely different eleven and Avro introducing eight new faces. However, Afuye stayed on and it was another dazzling piece of wing play which earned his side a way back into the game, as this time the referee decided that he had indeed been brought down in the area.
Joe Rathbone’s effort from twelve yards had enough power to find its way into the back of the net, and although it was the visitors who looked more likely to find a winner in the last half hour, the home defence held firm on a night from which there were plenty of positives to be drawn for the two managers.
