FORMER Borough striker Steve Foster came back to haunt his old club with a brace for the in-form Salford side.

Salford started the brightest and might have opened the scoring after only two minutes when Gareth Thomas lashed a goal-bound shot towards goal which was deflected out for a corner.

At the other end, Adam Roscoe tried an audacious shot from the touchline with City goalkeeper Andrew Robertson off his line, but the effort was high of the target.

Foster struck on 22 minutes after City broke down the left and Lee Neville supplied the cross for the striker to slot home from close range.

The hosts levelled 11 minutes before the interval, however, as Mark Connor scored his first goal for the club, drilling the loose ball home from Owen Roberts’ corner.

But that was as good as it got for the Stainton Park side who crumbled to their second defeat on the bounce, showing ominous signs of weary legs in a punishing three-games-a-week end-of-season run-in.

Gary Sampson rattled the City post a minute before the interval and Adam Roscoe’s volley from the rebound was clawed away by Robertson, but they never got a sniff of a goal in the second half against the Moor Lane outfit, who have now won five on the bounce.

They were back in front within a minute of the second-half kick off, Foster cutting inside to slot the ball beyond Lloyd Rigby’s reach from 18 yards.

Three minutes later there was wholesale panic in the Radcliffe defence, and with Rigby flapping at the ball Salford captain Martin Andrews headed a deserved third goal.

Director of football Gerry Luczka shuffled his pack, bringing Tom Brooks, Mark Drew and Matt Carlisle into the fray in place of Connor, Eddie Stanford and Ali Brown, but it was to no avail as the well-organised Salford defence absorbed everything that was thrown at them.

Without the influential Mark Jones in midfield and Ben Wharton leading the line up front – both are suspended following their Manchester Premier Cup semi-final sendings off – Radcliffe never looked able to dominate their opponents.