A SECOND half collapse saw Barnoldswick Town suffer a heavy 5-0 defeat at Congleton Town on Saturday.

The loss, which drops Barnoldswick to 17th in the Premier Division on the North West Counties League, saw the home side score four goals in an eight-minute stretch of the second half to seal the victory.

Barnoldswick looked good to start the game, seeing a lot of the ball and creating chances.

One of those chances came from a long throw by Ash Brierley, but Leon Creech's header went just wide.

Soon after, Congleton got on the scoresheet in the 23rd minute when a mistake by Barlick keeper Liam Isherwood let Arron Johns in and his finish made it 1-0 to the home side.

Congleton then had a one-on-one chance, but Isherwood made great save to keep the score 1-0 at half-time.

Early in the second half, Congleton had a another one-on-one chance with the keeper but the shot went wide of the mark.

In the 53rd minute, Congleton Aaron Bott collected a long ball over the top and hit it on the volley to make it 2-0.

The Congleton marksmen Bott then scored two more goals, one each in the 55th and 58th minutes, to secure his hat-trick.

Three minutes later, Johns bagged his brace and Congleton saw out the game out to a 5-0 result at full-time.

"It was very disappointing performance," said Barnoldswick manager Endrit Shehu. "We started well and had a couple good chances to score. But Congleton scored first against the run of play, which changed everything.

"In the second half, we didn't compete, we lost our shape and allowed them to score easy goals.

"We need to regroup and move on. We have enough quality in our team, so hopefully we can start getting results.

"Apologies for the performance to the Barlick fans who travelled to watch us."

* Thanks to Storm Ciara, for the third time this season Barnoldswick's game at Winsford United has been postponed.

The game was due to take place at at 7.45pm tonight, but was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

Barnoldswick travel to Squires Gate this Saturday. Kick-off is at 3pm.