Burscough 0 Warrington Town 0

WARRINGTON Town completed an unwelcome hat-trick of goalless draws as they were held to a stalemate for a third successive week, this time by Burscough.

Shaun Reid's men had enough chances to at least be a couple of goals to the good at half time, and then found the going tough in the second half, as they fell further behind runaway league leaders Curzon Ashton.

Even the introduction of new signing, striker Shaun Tuck, failed to spark them into life, and Town are now winless in their last four matches.

The visitors, knocked down to third place by Darlington in midweek, started with intent and hit the woodwork on 14 minutes.

Scott Metcalfe switched the play to Aaron Bowen, who laid the ball off for Phil Davies. His superb cross found Metcalfe steaming in at the back post, but his header thundered against the crossbar.

Metcalfe was at the centre of most of the good things done by Town, and he got behind the defence shortly after the half hour mark, his low ball across the box turned behind for a corner.

Town's recent frustration in front of goal is perhaps best summed up by Ben Wharton, who once again failed to break his duck. It wasn't for the want of trying though, and his delightful lob off Davies' long ball forced an acrobatic stop by Burscough goalkeeper Tim Horn.

From the resulting corner, the ball bounced around the box and fell to Ciaran Kilheeney, who somehow managed to fire the ball over the bar from barely six yards out.

That chance, on the stroke of half time, was the closest Town got for the rest of the match.

They should have been behind barely a minute i to the second half, when goalkeeper Josh Ollerenshaw completely scuffed a free kick, which fell straight to the feet of Jordan Williams in front of goal, for a chance he squandered.

Williams went close with a free-kick later on in the half, and a fine half-volley from Eddie Toner was tipped over the bar by Ollerenshaw as Burscough threatened a winner.

There wasn't much in the way of action at the other end, despite the introduction of Tuck, and the only real threat came when a suspect back pass forced an error by Horn, that the goalkeeper got away with.

The draw leaves Town level on 71 points with Darlington, both with nine games to play, while Curzon Ashton sit nine points clear on 80 points, with a game in hand.

Burscough: Horn, Canozzi, Short, Williams, A Brown, Brookfield, Roberts, Toner, williams (Quirk), Beesley (Smith), Caddick (M Brown). Unused subs: Pegler.

Warrington: Ollerenshaw, Davies, Thompson, Meakin, McCarten, Robinson, Bowen (Gahgan), Mannix (Corrigan), Wharton, Kilheeney (Tuck), Metcalfe. Unused subs: Dawson, Ruane.