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Tuesday 22nd April - Buxton 4-0 Frickley Athletic

Trailing by three goals after 21 minutes, things got even worse for Frickley when they were reduced to ten men in the 34th minute at Buxton.

While the Blues are celebrating avoiding relegation in the Unibond Premier Division, the home side have a chance of promotion and showed their opponents no mercy.

It might have been different had Neil Towler's quick lob from eight yards not gone over in the fourth minute, the chance coming after a long clearance from Jon Hood was flicked on by Rob Pell and Lee Morris.

Fortune favoured the home side when Jason Bradley raced onto a deep clearance four minutes later and lobbed Hood from the edge of the penalty area to open their account, and there was a slice of luck ten minutes later, a 35 yard free-kick from Mark Lees appearing to be going wide until Bradley stuck out a leg and diverted the ball into the net with the Blues appealing unsuccessfully for off-side.

A cross from the left in the 21st minute struck Chris Hilton and dropped into the path of Neil Ross who fired into the net from ten yards to have the home fans cheering loudly.

Referee R Bartlett ruled that a handling offence by Grant Black had taken place outside the penalty area in the 27th minute, and a fierce free-kick from Chris Davies was diverted over the bar.

The Blues lost Jonathan Groome seven minutes later, when he received his marching orders after a heavy tackle in his own half, but thought they had reduced the arrears in the 37th minute.

A free-kick on the left by Davies saw Dean Jones head downwards and the ball appeared to cross the line, but was not given by either the referee or his assistant.

On the stroke of half-time, Towler outjumped the home cover to powerfully head a free-kick from Chris Gowen, only for his 12 yard effort to fall into the hands of Scott Hartley.

Some neat combination from Morris and Pell led to the latter firing inches wide of the left hand post in the 54th minute, but Buxton maintained the pressure, despite making a brace of substitutes at the interval.

Hood pushed a curling shot over on the hour and when the resultant corner was only half cleared a minute later, he spilled a close range effort and Bradley pounced to ram in the rebound and complete his hat trick.

A blow 30 yard drive from Tommy Agus was turned off target by Hood in the 79th minute as Buxton tried to finish with a flourish, but the Blues defence refused to capitulate and an effort by James Turley was diverted off the line in the 86th minute to deny them any further reward.