Boro batter Carlton

The 4-0 crushing of Carlton Town at Queensgate followed on neatly from the Evo-Stik North defeat of Radcliffe on Saturday, as Boro finally look to be finding their feet.

Steve Kittrick's men were not troubled at the back for the full 90 minutes, and going forward they rediscovered some of the potency that led them to the top of the table just a few months ago.

In fact, Ryan Blott, Tom Corner and Niall Flint gave the Carlton defenders a nightmare evening that they will be keen to dispel from their memories.

Things looked against Boro heading into the game, as they could only fill two places on the subs bench, due to the absence of Nathan Peat, Glenn Matthews and the newly-departed Pete Davidson.

And after a positive start, which saw Eddy Birch's low drive hacked off the Carlton line, the situation got even worse when Matty Bloor suffered a recurrence of his quad injury.

So when Romello Nangle danced through and fired a low shot in on the Boro goal you may have been forgiven for thinking that it was going to settle in the bottom corner. But instead Nick Draper made a superb one-handed save to keep it out.

This ignited Boro's attacking flame, and within seconds the hosts were ahead.

Corner met a set-piece from the left and headed it goalwards, only for Birch to touch it past Jack Steggles and into the back of the net.

It could have been two just a minute later. Corner latched onto a Steve Mallory free-kick and guided it against the underside of the bar, a melee ensued before the danger was cleared.

The Boro threat was coming from all over now, and Blott brilliantly spun in the lively Flint, who skipped past Steggles, only to be brought down by the keeper.

Referee Mr Grunhill should probably brandished a red card rather than a yellow, but Corner dished out the punishment when dispatching the ball into the top corner.

A period of calm sandwiched the half-time break on the pitch, but off it there were some disappointing scenes, with boss Kittrick being abused on his way to the changing room.

This didn't affect his side though, as Blott went on to kill the game off on the hour with a swift double.

Firstly the striker brilliantly swept a corner into the bottom corner to make it 3-0.

He then sent the keeper the wrong way after an incisive move to force Boro further clear of their shell-shocked opponents.

It could have been worse for Carlton as well, as Jamie Forrester's deflected shot rolled just past the upright and then Corner smashed into the side-netting in the final moments of the match.

The performance and the result was a total breath of fresh air for Boro, who now head into Saturday's visit of Kendal with the look of a completely different team.