RADCLIFFE FC suffered back-to-back cup defeats this week, losing 2-1 at Kendal Town in the FA Trophy and going down 1-0 at Hyde United in the Manchester Premier Cup, writes Joe Haslam.

Saturday’s FA Trophy defeat was almost a direct reverse of the previous weekend’s league encounter between the two sides, when Radcliffe held on to win 3-2 after taking a 3-0 lead into the break.

This time it was Kendal who started well and the Mintcakes were 2-0 up by half time.

It was actually Boro, however, that made all the running in the opening half hour, with Carl Peers heading their best chance straight at the goalkeeper following a James Hooper cross. But Kendal opened the scoring on 33 minutes when Rick Seear headed in at the back post.

And the home side scored almost immediately after the restart, when a mix-up in the Boro defence allowed Matt Clarke to bear down on Boro goalkeeper Ryan Jones before squaring the ball to Anthony Lynch for an easy tap-in.

Jones was forced into a fine save at the start of the second half, tipping over a Seear header from a corner.

But Boro enjoyed the lion’s share of possession for the remainder of the match.

The visitors pulled a goal back on 56 minutes through Peers, who fired in from close range after good work from Akil Crier, who beat two Kendal defenders before putting the ball on a plate for his team-mate.

Callum Grogan and Peers had chances to equalise, but Grogan’s header was well saved and Peers put a shot agonisingly wide late on.

Boro and Hyde were level at the break after a goalless first half in their Manchester Premier Cup tie on Tuesday night.

Both sides had chances to get on the scoresheet before a defensive mistake from Boro handed Hyde what turned out to be the only goal of the game. David Brown made the most of misplaced pass to square for Luke Porritt to score.