Farsley AFC 2, Radcliffe Borough 0
Farsley overcame enforced changes due to a glut of suspensions to ease to another three Evo-Stik League points in Division One North.
Neil Parsley’s men were comfortable winners without really hitting the heights, while it was the third-bottom visitors who overstepped the disciplinary line.
Radcliffe played the last half hour with ten men after right back Josh Bradsley was dismissed for retaliation.
The game was all but over by that point, with Lee Ellington’s double having seen the home side in cruise control by the interval.
The visitors did not look capable of mounting a second-half comeback and when Bradsley raised his hands to Matty James, who was yellow-carded in the same incident, it became an even more remote prospect.
There were just eight minutes on the clock when Ellington opened the scoring. Danny Hull had chased a ball down and won a throw-in. He took it to Ross Daly, who provided the cross that allowed Ellington to head back across the visiting keeper.
Having scored early in the first half, Farsley added their second less than two minutes before the interval.
Full back Aaron Hardy had pushed forward and he gathered possession following a missed clearance before sending in a waist-high cross that Ellington dived to head past the Radcliffe keeper.
Farsley skipper Matty Young had the ball in the net between Ellington’s strikes but was in an offside position.
Aiden Savory’s shot from the corner of the area that hit the underside of the bar was the nearest Farsley came to adding a third goal.
As the game wound down to a tame finish, there was a brief appearance from the Radcliffe bench of a familiar face as former Farsley Celtic striker Kevin Sanasy played the last 21 minutes.
Parsley said: “It wasn’t a classic performance from us but a win is a win.
“We struggled a little and the conditions didn’t help. The wind was a problem and the pitch was uneven, so it was never going to be a game for the purist.
“But I though we got to grips with it and showed a lot of determination. We had four players suspended but the lads who came into those positions have done a job for us.”
Farsley moved up one place to third with the win and have another home game on Tuesday night against second-bottom Burscough.
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