Five-star effort ahead of shutdown

corner was poor and Runcorn had a goal kick.

Cairns cut inside from the left and closed in towards goal, but his shot ended up going wide from a tight angle, across the face of goal and out for a goal kick.

The first half was brought to a close with Runcorn Town in control.

The lead was doubled in the 52nd minute, Kevin Exell kept possession of the ball after taking on two players before crossing the ball from the left to Craig Cairns who tapped the ball into the empty net near the right of the post.

The lead was trebled, just a minute later, Exell again crossed the ball from the left towards Craig Cairns, who rounded the ball past the oncoming Jones and slotted the ball into the empty net.

Burscough made their first substitution during the 54th minute as Alexander Pope was replaced by Joel Douglas.

Cairns was penalised for a foul during the 55th minute and picked up the first yellow card of the game for Runcorn.

Burscough made their second substitution of the game during the 59th minute as Conor Christiansen was replaced by Adam Weston.

Holsgrove was the second Runcorn player to be given a yellow card during the 60th minute, after what was a fair challenge but deemed to be late by Mr Porter.

Runcorn had another chance during the 61st minute, Exell with yet another pin point cross towards Cairns, however, his shot was saved by Jones.

The ball was routed into the goal in the 66th minute, Joe Holt’s cross field ball was collected by Exell who crossed the ball into the path of CRAIG CAIRNS who slotted the ball into the right side of the goal and completed his hat-trick.

Runcorn made a substitution during the 67th minute with Leon Wright replacing Kevin Exell.

Danny Brynes had a shot on goal during the 72nd minute, but this was deflected wide and out for a corner, which amounted to nothing.

Owen Dursley was the next Runcorn player to go into the book for a foul during the 73rd minute.

Runcorn made a double substitution in the 75th minute as Mark Haslam and Dave Forbes replaced Kieran Holsgrove and Craig Cairns respectfully.

Burscough made their final substitution of the game as Andrew Presho replaced Kevin Pollard.

Shaun Weaver was the next Runcorn player to be given a booking due to a trailing leg during the 79th minute.

Burscough’s only shot on target during the second half was from a free kick in the 79th minute, which was 20 yards or so away from the goal, but this was straight to the arms of Reliable Reid who caught it with ease.

The score was 5-0; Runcorn had a corner from the right, the ball was pinging round the box before ending up at Weaver’s feet and he then crossed it low into the box and Marcus James poked it into the bottom right corner during the 85th minute of the game.

● Following the Government’s announcement this evening that all non essential social contact should stop immediately due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the NWCFL League Management Committee has agreed it has no alternative but to suspend all NWCFL fixtures until further notice with immediate effect.

RUNCORN Town exited from the Liverpool Senior Cup against an organised and disciplined Tranmere Rovers side, which consisted mainly of their under-18s team.

The assistant manager Daniel Jarrett made six changes to the team that went down to a 2-0 defeat against Squires Gate. Stephen Wainwright, Owen Dursley, Mark Haslam, Kevin Exell, Craig Cairns and Simon Thelwell replaced Aidan Roxburgh, Danny Byrnes, Shaun Weaver, Dave Forbes, Kieran Holsgrove and Tom Rowlands.

Tranmere had a couple of pot-shots hoping to catch Adam Reid, but Mr Reliable was on hand to make the two saves with ease as the shots were straight at him.

Runcorn had a great chance during the 12th minute, Craig Cairns fired a cross pitch pass, which was perfectly executed towards Kevin Exell, but Exell stumbled over the ball and he was unable to have a shot on goal and