Trafford’s tale of woe continued on Saturday when, despite dominating for long spells, they fell to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Clitheroe. Following a close fought opening, the game burst into life in the 22nd minute when Trafford full back Sam Baird headed against the Clitheroe crossbar and the visitors immediately broke down the other end where a Terry Cummings shot was parried by Matty Cooper, Owen Watkinson blasting the rebound over the bar with the goal at his mercy.
The game then became rather scrappy but disaster struck for the hosts in the 43rd minute when Keil O’Brien was harshly adjudged to have fouled Hyuga Tanner and Connor Gaul stepped forward to coolly place the resultant penalty into the bottom corner.
Just seconds into the second half Watkinson almost made it two when he unleashed a thunderous drive against the crossbar from 25 yards with Trafford thankfully scrambling the rebound to safety.
Lewis Salmon was battling gamely up front for Tom Baker’s men, heading wide at the back post in the 52nd minute and then firing straight at Cameron Terry from 20 yards.
Dangerman Watkinson cracked a low drive from 25 yards that Cooper saved at full length whilst at the other end, home skipper Sam Egerton headed wide following a right wing corner.
It was now all Trafford as they pushed forward gallantly in search of the equaliser but in the 82nd minute they were dealt a sucker punch when Clitheroe broke away down the right, Watkinson neatly feeding Jordan Darr who blasted the ball past the advancing Cooper.
Try as they might, Trafford were unable to reduce the deficit and so fell to their fourth successive defeat in their league campaign, their only saving grace being an FA Cup victory over Burscough a week earlier.