A Ben Hodkinson goal in the first half was enough to ensure that the home side secured all three points at the end of a chilly night on Merseyside, and in the process inflict a first defeat in eight league games on the visitors.
Manager Alex Frost made three changes from the side which had been edged out of the FA Trophy in a penalty shootout at the weekend. Jack Sloan made his first start at left back since signing from Trafford, with Kane Wallwork pushed into a more attacking role.
Deane Smalley started up front in place of the injured Kyle Hawley, with Joe Rathbone and Jake Cottrell coming into midfield as James Dwyer moved back into the centre of defence.
Home keeper Tony Thompson had to make two fine saves in the opening few minutes to keep out headers from Dwyer and Wallwork, but it was Bootle who struck first just before the midway point of the half. A swift counter attack ended with the ball at the feet of Hodkinson deep inside the Avro area, and he calmly slotted the ball into the bottom corner to give his side the lead.
There was little by way of goalmouth action after that until halfway through the second period, when Avro keeper Grant Shenton reacted quickly to claw the ball away just before it crossed the line after the initial effort had squirmed through his grasp.
With ten minutes remaining, Rathbone’s header from Wallwork’s cross lacked the power to trouble Thompson, and when Dwyer finally got the ball past him with a powerful header from a Cottrell corner, a covering defender cleared it off the line. That was to be the nearest that Avro would come to an equaliser, as Bootle ran down the clock and thus sealed a deserved success.
