Linnets left frustrated in fight for survival

BURSCOUGH’S clash with Maine Road was abandoned on Saturday after a waterlogged pitch rendered the game unplayable.

Maine Road delivered the news via social media on Saturday morning, and despite being saved the short journey to Manchester, Dave Sutton’s men will have been wishing the game had gone ahead in their bid to ease relegation fears.

The Linnets sit five points clear of the relegation zone as two consecutive wins had seen them propel out of the bottom four of the Hallmark Premier Division.

With Barnton and AFC Darwen hopelessly adrift on nine and eleven points respectively, only Abbey Hey and Irlam can suck Sutton’s side back into the mix.

Both of those sides also suffered postponements with widespread cancellations across the country, and with the four teams directly below Burscough all failing to register a fixture, the picture remains unclear.

Only two sides in the division, Barnton and Widnes, have played more games than Burscough, and Irlam have a relatively huge seven game advantage on the Linnets.

Abbey Hey have a more respectable sounding four, while AFC Liverpool and Maine Road have three and two respectively.

Despite this, only one team below the top eight have a better record than Burscough in their last five fixtures, with Sutton’s team managing to pick up three wins from their last five games, sandwiching their victories between two consecutive defeats.

With a trip to Abbey Hey next up, Burscough’s fate will cer- tainly not be sealed by any definitive result as 15 games currently remain.

It could, however, go a long way to propelling them further up the table and away from an ignominious consecutive relegation.

However, with off-field plans to develop a new stadium getting the go ahead and signs of improvement at Victoria Park, a victory on Saturday could kickstart a much needed survival push.