Cheadle Town 4-1 Bacup Borough

Whyatt, Ratican, Whyatt, Ratican.

If, like me, you have a slight case of OCD then that lovely little symmetrical sequence will push your button in a kind of way.

That's how the scoring pattern panned out last night as we comfortably saw off Bacup Borough. All four goals were wonderfully taken and whilst we are right to heap praise on our goalscoring duo, the support act wasn't bad either.

Whatever Liam Delaney had for his dinner last night worked wonders as he was spraying passes around for fun in the first half and Mssrs Nield and Dunn had excellent shifts on our flanks.

Luke Cotton - desperately unlucky not to have scored, it has to be said - was the first to show as he raced clear with just a minute gone only for the Bacup keeper to get a vital touch to his shot and deflect it wide of the post.

On the 11th minute we took the lead. A delicious cross from the right by Liam Delaney found the head of Rick Whyatt in the area who thumped a header off the underside of the crossbar with the keeper rooted to his spot.

On 21 minutes Bacup had a chance to equalise but Danny Whiting made an excellent stop to deny their no10 after he had sprinted clear on the right.

Just two minutes later a Joe Nield shot deflected straight into the path of Luke Cotton but he was to be denied once again as his effort was nicked wide.

On the half-hour mark, a case of deja-vu.

Tom Ratican was sent clear down the left but, perhaps with too much time to think, planted his effort harmlessly into the keeper's midriff. Just in case you had missed that by gazing up at the passing aircraft he was put in exactly the same position again 30 seconds later.

There was a different outcome this time as he nudged the ball past the onrushing keeper with a lovely delicate flick of his right foot to give us a 2-0 lead.

Just before half-time Liam Delaney sent in a piledriver from 30 yards out that forced a great save by the keeper before an equally impressive shot gave us a 3-0 lead moments later.

Latching onto a lofted through ball, Rick Whyatt tussled with a Bacup defender and seemed to have lost control of it thanks to an unfortunate ricochet; in the blink of an eye he then unleashed a vicious, dipping 20-yarder that sailed in under the crossbar.

It took a matter of seconds after half-time for us to carry on where we left off and if Luke Cotton needed any indication that this wasn't going to be his night then his header that hit the crossbar with the goal gaping should have been enough.

Bacup, who surely must have been on the end of an ear-bending from manager Brent Peters, came out much brighter in the second half and forced Danny Whiting into holding a fierce drive on 47 minutes.

They then side-footed wide when in a good position following some good work down the left with Rick Whyatt firing just over on the hour mark and a Chris Sherrington drilled cross having nobody to touch it home.

With 70 minutes gone we sealed the deal for sure following a lovely move that was started in midfield by Liam Delaney and ended by Tom Ratican advancing on goal and sliding home for his second of the night.

And that was pretty much that where chances were concerned, bar Bacup's consolation on 82 minutes when Bryan stormed through on the right and stabbed home.

That was only our third league win at home all season but, with a lot more home matches yet to come, repeat performances like this one will ensure that particular tally is improved upon before the season is out.

Next up is a tricky away-day at an in-form Cammell Laird this Saturday.

TEAM: Whiting, Nield, Ratican, Delaney, Shaw, Harrison, Dunn, Wood (Fleming), Cotton (Farrow), Whyatt, C Sherrington (Collinson). SUBS: Collinson, Fleming, Farrow, Allcock (gk).