The first chance of the game fell to Runcorn’s Naim Arsan when he fired onto the roof of the net after picking up a loose ball on the edge of the box. Joe Allerton came close in similar fashion shortly after when a defender denied Luke Aldrich, his strike just over the crossbar.
Harry Flatters made the first of a number of crucial interventions on 10 mins after Jorge Dwyer beat the last man but the Town stopper made himself big and kept the striker out at the expense of a corner kick. He made another good stop from Marcus Cusani who got on the end of Arsan’s delivery moments later but in any case the offside flag was raised.
Down the other end, Max Tweddle was kept out by Linnets keeper Bayleigh Passant when teed up by Rinor Ejupi’s dinked through ball.
The hosts counter-attacked well and gave themselves the lead on 29 mins. Arsan’s through ball found Linnets top scorer Scott Bakkor who raced past the last defender and finished well across Flatters. The lead was almost doubled three minutes later, Arsan’s swerving shot went just wide when he was played in by Cusani.