Runcorn 0, Bradford Park Avenue 2: Avenue brushed aside Runcorn with a superb performance, but their sixth victory on the bounce came at a hefty price.

In a dramatic win at the giant Autoquest Stadium, Avenue lost two players to injury, giving boss Trevor Storton an enormous selection headache ahead of next week's League Cup final second leg.

Centre back James Stansfield was rushed to hospital with a suspected broken ankle, and with bustling centre forward Jason Maxwell also hobbling off, things look bleak for the return match against Accrington Stanley.

Avenue are now down to 12 fit men, with four centre backs out injured or unavailable.

But they can draw many positives from this performance, where, despite dropping to ten men, they battled hard and played some excellent football.

"It wasn't the type of game we wanted ahead of the cup final," said Storton after the 105- minute encounter which featured six yellow cards and one red.

"We could have done without picking up those injuries, but it was a great performance. The lads worked really hard out there and showed a lot of quality."

Avenue opened the scoring after just five minutes when Runcorn failed to clear a cross from the superb Dean Calcutt. The ball bounced out to Martin James on the edge of the box and his curling shot hit the crossbar with the keeper well-beaten. But Andy Hayward pounced on the rebound to slot home from seven yards.

In the second-half, giant centre back Matt Daly was red-carded by the inconsistent and over-officious Paul Barbin for a deliberate handball, but the visitors still maintained their grip on the game.

With 15 minutes left on the clock, Calcutt burst from inside his own half before sliding a right-foot shot across the keeper from the edge of the box which bounced in off the far post.

The tricky winger was delighted to grab his 12th goal of the season, but the biggest smile of the night would have been on the face of visiting Accrington manager John Coleman, no doubt delighted to see next week's opponents dropping like flies.