The Unibond League division North side had come into this second qualifying round tie rooted to the foot of their division, but their cup form has salvaged something from a difficult start to the season writes Russell Brown.

With their FA Cup first round proper tie on the horizon, the Scholars will now have to face the tiring midweek journey to Manchester. Not the ideal preparation to meet Team Bath on Saturday, but it could have been very different had keeper Lee Evans not been in top form for the Scholars and Kyle Perry having two goals ruled out.

This FA Trophy game was delayed by 75 minutes due to Radcliffe and the match officials being caught up in a Motorway snarl up, but that did not seem to affect the visitors as they battled hard to earn another try at the Scholars at Stainton Park.

An early chance came the visitor’s way when a short free kick was delivered into the area by John Branch. The ball was just too high for Kyle Perry but it dropped at the far post for Vaughan Thomas who seemed surprised to have the opportunity and the ball bounced off his shins, wide.

The visitors seemed to be unfazed by their horrendous journey and the lively looking Steve Howson was denied by a superb tackle in his own penalty area by Chris Slater.

A long range shot could only be parried by Danny Holland and with Lee Parsons following in the keeper recovered to touch the ball away from the Chasetown skipper. Perry did well to hold off the defender to slip the ball into the path of Dean Perrow, but the striker scuffed his shot in front of goal.

A half chance fell to Craig Holland who almost profited by the defenders slip. The ball coming at him at pace to strike his chest, but the midfielder quickly improvised to go close with an overhead kick. Ben Steane then brought a good save from Danny Holland as he turned and struck a fierce shot that the keeper got a hand to push out for a corner.

From a free kick Lee Connell delivered a telling ball and Craig Dawson saw Lee Evans make a fantastic save to keep out the Borough player’s powerful header.

Just before the break another error, this time from Andy Scott, let in Perry but his shot was placed straight at the Radcliffe keeper.

Borough could have taken the lead in bizarre fashion after the break when another set piece from Tony Whealing saw Slater in attempting to clear, miscue his defensive header. With the ball spinning towards the corner of the net, somehow Evans got across his goal line to scoop the ball away at his right hand post.

Perrow got behind the Radcliffe defence to set up Steane, but despite beating the keeper, the ball just did not have enough pace on it and Borough gratefully cleared the chance off the line.

Chasetown had the ball in the net midway in the second half when Steane’s chip saw the ball headed in a close range by Perry. However, the assistant had raised his flag as the striker was ruled marginally offside. That decision may have been the correct one on that occasion, but the home crowd were incensed when the same official again raised his flag to rule out a second header from Perry when the striker was clearly behind his marker when the ball was lifted into the area.

With some contentious decisions going the visitors way, frustrations were beginning to built and despite manager Charlie Blakemore’s decision to go three up front with the introduction of the dangerous Danny Smith, Chasetown just could not find the inspiration to grab that vital winning goal and as the game finally finished late into the evening, both teams must try again on Tuesday night.

Chasetown: Evans, J Branch, M Branch (Spacey), Slater, Thomas, Williams, Steane (D Smith), Parsons, Perry (Edwards), Perrow, Holland

Other Subs: S Smith, Thompson (not used)