Burscough 0 Accrington Stanley 3

ACCRINGTON STANLEY face another crucial play-off clash at Woking on Saturday at least knowing that they will not finish the season empty-handed.

Wednesday night’s first-leg win at Burscough in the final of the Lancashire Marsden Trophy should guarantee that the Reds will lift the cup after the return on April 26.

By then John Coleman’s men will hope to be looking forward to the first leg of a Conference play-off clash and would love to secure the kind of cushion they earned themselves at Victoria Park.

Goals from Gary Roberts, Paul Cook and Ian Craney killed off any hopes Burscough had of pulling off a shock, although the UniBond League Premier Division side could feel hard done by the size of their defeat.

The Linnets carved out the majority of the decent chances against a Stanley side with one eye on their crunch Conference run-in.

Former Blackburn Rovers youngster Liam Blakeman and the lively David Eaton were denied by Accrington keeper Danny Alcock once Roberts had fired the visitors ahead after David Newnes could only parry a fierce shot from Burscough old-boy Lee McEvilly.

And the home was dealt a further blow in first-half stoppage time when Cook doubled Stanley’s lead with a cool finish after David Brown had a shot blocked on the line.

Accrington upped their game after the interval but were still caught out on the break a couple of times with Alcock having to save sharply from Paul Gedman and substitute Gary Martindale going close.

But Craney put the tie beyond Burscough’s reach when he scored the third from close-range in injury time following a neat one-two with Paul Mullin.