With manager Joey Dunn on a 50th birthday celebration in New York, Runcorn Linnets delivered an early present with another important victory in the North West Counties League Premier Division.

The table-topping Linnets exploited title rivals Glossop North End and 1874 Northwich both being in weekend FA Vase action to stretch three points further ahead.

It no doubt made the last two days of Dunn’s holiday all the more enjoyable and the Runcorn boss will have flown home on Monday, his actual birthday, content in the knowledge that all had gone to plan in his absence.

That is not to say, however, that the trip to the Fylde Coast was straightforward. Struggling AFC Blackpool and their manager Stuart Parker, a Linnets striker in the mid-1980s, made Runcorn work very hard for an albeit deserved victory which preserved their unbeaten league run for the season.

Ultimately, Linnets had just too much class for their hosts and showed the fortitude needed by all would-be champions in recovering to reassume charge after the hosts had cancelled out Runcorn’s interval lead early in the second half.

Leading marksman Kevin Towey, although not at his devastating best, set up the two goals for scorers who were so unlikely that Dunn must have questioned the validity of the text messages reporting them.

The first of these goals, Runcorn’s second of the match, came from Martin Crowder and still took some scoring despite the big part played by striker Towey.

The left back followed up on Towey’s 59th-minute shot and saw his gamble pay off thanks to a superb rebound finish from the acutest of angles after AFC Blackpool’s impressive ‘keeper had done well to keep out the striker’s low effort.

Four minutes later, Towey engineered the third Linnets’ goal which effectively settled matters, although it was to prove his final contribution to the game.

Homing in on the left of goal, Runcorn’s talisman was clipped by a defender on the cusp of shooting and although advantage was played, the forward was off balance because of the challenge.

When the resulting chance was missed, the referee quite rightly brought the game back to award a penalty. Towey, however, was in no fit state to take it and the kick had to be delayed while he made his way off.

Whether Towey, having missed with the Linnets’ most recent penalty, would have been the taker anyway is another matter.

Certainly, Mike White grabbed the ball pretty quickly - so if it was a planned move, perhaps Dunn wasn’t all that surprised to learn one of his centre backs was a scorer from the spot. It was all very calmly done too, particularly after such a lengthy wait.

Even then, the Mechanics refused to capitulate. While Runcorn might have expected and could have had more goals in the closing stages, the home side redoubled their efforts in the last 10 minutes. But for Richie Mottram’s timely tip-over save from a header, they could have made the away side’s victory a little less clear-cut.

Despite having the better of the first half, Runcorn hadn’t exactly been firing on all cylinders and left it until two minutes from the break to reward the patience - and calm the nerves - of their dominant following in a 234 crowd.

When it came, the opening goal was very simple. Linnets’ all-time record appearance holder Matt Atherton met Warren Bellew’s left-wing corner with a clean header for his seventh campaign goal.

But hopes that Linnets would take up after the interval where they had left off didn’t materialise. By the 49th minute, former Linnets favourite Lloyd Balazs had fired the Fylde Coast hosts surprisingly level in the gathering gloom.

His close-range finish from a superb ball in from the right, after Runcorn had failed to clear their lines, was Balazs’ second home AFC Blackpool strike in as many seasons against the Linnets .

In between, however, he has had a spell at Evo-Stik League club Padiham with his ex-Runcorn manager Steve Wilkes.

For Runcorn, this was another box ticked ahead of Saturday’s return trip to Lancashire to face newly-promoted Nelson. The win apart, the biggest positives last Saturday arguably came from the substitutes’ bench.

Kyle Hamid, after taking a well-earned breather from the starting XI, revitalised Runcorn’s performance in the centre of the park on his introduction while Lee Thompson clearly relished a rare extended outing as replacement for Towey.

Perhaps most encouraging of all was the inclusion, among the Linnets non-used replacements, of midfield playmaker Francis Smith. The ex-Formby man had not figured at all since being forced off by a back injury in the draw at 1874 Northwich on September 23rd. His return will be welcome and may not be too far away.

Runcorn Linnets: Mottram, Armstrong, Crowder, Humphreys, White, Ellison, Wade, Bellew (Hamid), Towey (Thompson), Atherton, Lomax. Subs (not used): Adamson, Burke, Smith.