RADCLIFFE Boro self- destructed at Ossett on Tuesday night, conceding four goals in 12 crazy second-half minutes.

Until Simon Kelly’s howler on 55 minutes, which allowed Albion marksman John Bentley to toe-poke the ball home from close range, Gerry Luczka’s men looked to be cruising to victory at 2-0 up.

It’s a footballing cliché that 2-0 is a dangerous lead, and so it proved, as Boro continued their amazing capitulation.

Four minutes after Bentley had provided the lifeline for the hosts — and with it all the momentum — Boro once again failed to clear their lines from Michael Senior’s corner and giant centre back Lee Connor was on hand to rifle the ball home at the second attempt to put the hosts level.

It went from bad to worse for the Stainton Park side two minutes later as Sam Jackson’s cross was punched clear by Lloyd Rigby before the ball fell to Albion captain Senior, who promptly fired past the injured Boro keeper to give the home side an unlikely lead.

With Rigby clearly struggling after suffering an injury in a collision with Gareth Hamlet in the build up to Ossett’s third, Senior’s 67th minute corner found its way straight into the Boro net to complete a wretched spell for Luczka’s men.

A raft of substitutions brought Steve Howson, Tom Brooks and Mark Connor into the fray and Boro upped their game for the last 20 minutes, but the damage had been done.

It had all been so different in the first half when Ben Wharton proved too hot for the home defence to handle.

He struck first in the 11th minute, cutting in from the left to unleash a right-foot shot which Albion keeper Ben Gaynor got his hands to, but could not prevent going in.

Boro looked like they could score every time they attacked and in the 24th minute Gaynor inexplicably kicked out at Wharton when he was running away from goal, leaving the referee no alternative but to point to the spot. Eddie Stanford stepped up to give Boro what looked like a comfortable and deserved lead.

If Stanford had managed to guide the ball inside Gaynor’s post instead of the wrong side of it when Wharton set him up on 38 minutes, it might have killed the game off.

Similarly, Wharton might also have put Boro out of danger of an Ossett revival on the stroke of half time, when he skinned full back Sam Jackson, only to see his goal-bound shot cleared off the line.

Whatever hopes Boro had of sneaking into the UniBond Division One North play-offs before this match, must surely have been washed away with the torrential rain which punctuated the game.