AFC Liverpool bowed out of this season’s FA Cup with Budweiser at the Millbank Linnets Stadium. They were three goals down before Steven Jones finished with aplomb but sadly for the Reds it didn’t inspire a second comeback in four days.

Never really putting the home side under pressure, the Reds fell behind on thirteen minutes when Paul Prescott held off the challenge of Callum Tai Hogan to head the ball home from six yards out.

A quick response was needed and it came as Jones muscled his way down the left flank into the Linnets’ penalty area but fired his effort straight at Richard Mottram, allowing the keeper to make the save. However, that was as good as it got for the Reds in the first forty five minutes. In contrast, though they failed to really test Michael Christopher, the home side were the more constructive. Only Chris Fitzsimmons called the Reds keeper into action, drilling his shot straight at Christopher from the corner of the box after he had robbed Joe Bennett of possession.

It would have been two nil thirty seconds into the second half but for the intervention of Christopher, denying Phil Holland from point blank range, after the Reds’ defence struggled to clear their lines. On the up, Prescott almost doubled his tally, shooting on the turn from the corner of the area before providing a centre on fifty two minutes that Kevin Towey bundled home from inside the six yard box.

On sixty seven minutes the result was pretty much settled as Robert Whyte broke through a flatfooted Reds’s back line before finishing with a coolly composed chip over the advancing Christopher.

Hope for AFC Liverpool fans was briefly revived when Jones latched onto Shaun Chart’s ball over the top before lobbing Mottram from the edge of the area but following that the Reds didn’t apply enough pressure to rock a comfortable Runcorn defence. A couple of free kicks from twenty five yards provided the only possible opportunities but Steve Corris’ cross couldn’t be guided on target and Chart’s direct attempt didn’t have enough pace on it to beat Mottram.

Runcorn Linnets 3-1 AFC Liverpool
Prescott 13′                             Jones 70′
Towey 52′
Whyte 67′

Attendance: 320