City take second place

Last updated : 25 April 2008 By Tony Scholes
Alex MacDonald - reserve team leading scorer
City had two games against Wrexham this week, a club currently at a very low ebb, but with Burnley drawing at Carlisle this week to end their hopes of a second place finish it gave both City and Wrexham a chance to take the runners up spot.

It was in the end City and comprehensively as they won 3-0 at the Racecourse on Monday before beating the Welsh side 6-3 at Hyde United's ground on Wednesday. The second game was no easy ride for City and incredibly Wrexham went in front three times before falling to that heavy defeat. Their first two goals came from Simon Spender and the third from Mark Head.

Morecambe really have enjoyed their first season in this league. They are now seven points clear at the top and even if City win their last game the league's new boys will still have won the league by four points having lost only four games all season. Their latest win came at Fleetwood against Blackpool.

No weekly report could be complete without mention of Rochdale who climbed off the bottom of the league and will only end the season in bottom place if Burnley lost to Accrington a week on Wednesday.

They didn't just win to get off the bottom of the league but hammered Chester 7-1 which included a hat trick for Chris Dagnall. It was only 1-0 at half time with Dagnall having got his first, but just after the break he scored again before Chris Basham made it 3-0.

Chester pulled one back but then in the last twenty minutes of the game Rochdale scored four more. Will Buckley got the first two of them, then Joe Thompson scored before Dagnall completed his hat trick.

This week's results

Monday
Bury 2 Chester 2
Wrexham 0 Manchester City 3

Wednesday
Accrington 0 Tranmere 1
Blackpool 1 Morecambe 2
Bury 2 Preston 0
Carlisle 1 Burnley 1
Chester 1 Rochdale 7
Manchester City 6 Wrexham 3

Remaining fixtures

Monday 28th April
Carlisle v Bury

Tuesday 29th April
Bury v Manchester City
Rochdale v Blackpool

Wednesday 7th May
Burnley v Accrington

Burnley Goalscorers

5: Alex MacDonald
: Steve Jones
3: Ade Akinbiyi, Alan Mahon, James O'Connor, Jay Rodriguez, Rob Turner
2: Owen Coyle, Michael Duff
1: James Craggs, Wade Elliott, Alex-Ray Harvey, Adam Kay, Garreth O'Connor, David Unsworth