AFTER winning six out of their last eight games including showing strength and character in a comeback victory against Scarborough Athletic on Saturday, Radcliffe Borough went into Tuesday's match with First Division North high-fliers Northwich Victoria full of confidence.

However, 17th-placed Boro succumbed to a 4-0 defeat – their heaviest reverse of the season – as Northwich overpowered them with two goals from Joshua Amis and further efforts from Scott Duxbury and Iain Howard.

The Belvoir Stadium outfit produced a gritty second half performance to beat Scarborough Athletic 2-1 at home on Saturday.

Left-back Caine Winfarrah’s crunching tackle on winger Tom Hulme in the opening three minutes of the game set the tone and resulted in an early booking.

Scarborough’s dominance in the midfield showed when they won the majority of the middle of the park challenges.

On 20 minutes centre-back Jamie Forbes was penalised for his challenge on Scarborough captain Nathan Peat and the away side were awarded a penalty, which Peat converted himself to give the visitors the lead.

Sam McMahon thought he earned Boro a spot kick of their own a few minutes later but he was instead booked for simulation.

It was all Scarborough as the half progressed and they very nearly doubled their advantage with a goalmouth scramble on 35 minutes but the ball was just about cleared.

A much-improved Radcliffe took more control of the midfield in the second half and in-form Matthew Davies levelled the scores with a right-footed strike into the top right hand corner on the hour mark.

Boro continued to press and as the clock ticked into the final 10 minutes of the game they finally took the lead through captain Richard Smith.