Trafford were out-thought and out-fought as ten-man Bootle produced a magnificent second half performance to walk away with the points on Tuesday night.
Following two excellent victories at Albion Sports and Congleton, Karl Marginson’s team started confidently but were unable to create any clear-cut chances against the well-drilled Bootle defence.
However, in the 19th minute the visitors were reduced to ten men when centre back Jonathan Spittle was sent off for an off the ball incident that left Rio Clegg nursing a bloody nose.
Isaac Noble saw his shot deflected over , Brad Byrne rifled a shot just wide from 30 yards and Rio Clegg curled a drive inches over as Trafford dominated.
William Bell volleyed over from 15 yards as Trafford failed to clear a Bootle free kick and as half-time approached the hosts Mike Burke struck a free kick over and Hilal Khan’s 18 yard drive was deflected onto the roof of the net.
Six minutes into injury time at the end of the first half the home fans were stunned when Brad Byrne carelessly conceded possession forty yards out and Bootle danger-man Michael Burkey struck a spectacular first time effort that flew over Sam Booth and into the top corner to give the visitors an unlikely lead.
The second half was a disaster for Trafford as Bootle’s ten men were well on top and Tom Peterson should have made it two in the 48th minute but blasted his penalty kick well over after Jack Higginbottom had fouled Burkey.
At the other end Rio Clegg was unlucky when he struck the right hand post after breaking down the right and in the 53rd minute Burkey almost scored a replica of his first goal when his shot from 35 yards was tipped over by Sam Booth.
Despite using all five substitutes, Trafford were unable to break down the superbly organised Bootle defence and, in fact, it was the visitors who went closest to increasing their lead in the closing stages when Conor Harwood just failed to connect cleanly with a low cross from the right and Ben Hodgkinson fired into the side-netting after the hosts gave the ball away once again.
Trafford were desperately disappointed both with the result and performance but they must now turn their focus on Saturday’s FA Cup Preliminary Round Tie in which they host Emley FC at the Away Day Care Shawe View Stadium, kick off 3 p.m.