LINNETS spent an hour soul-searching in their dressing room after defeat in this topof-the-table North West Counties Division Two encounter.
Players were able to get things off their chests and team management also had their say in a free and frank exchange of views, designed to help arrest Runcorn's dip in form.
While by no means at crisis point, Linnets' season had hit a decidedly sticky patch.
But this latest setback was down to poor finishing more than anything else.
Some of the early-campaign zest and confidence was still missing.
However, second-placed Linnets had the better opportunities of a helter-skelter contest against the team lying third.
Four of the league's top-six scorers were in action in heavy conditions at the Arbories Memorial Ground - all being guilty of misses.
But when ever-industrious Dave Thompson passed up the kind of opening he would normally have expected to bury midway through the second half - only the keeper to beat from six yards out - you feared the cons equences.
Ten minutes from time, the division's top scorer Paul Fildes set up the man immediately behind him in the list for the decisive goal.
Vinnie Braine had the simple task of finding an empty net and although there was a strong suspicion of offside in the build-up, Runcorn had no complaints.
While captain Paul Scott tried to lift his side in what little time remained through leading by example, the earlier efforts of Runcorn centre backs Ricky Newell and Tommy Boden had all been in vain.
Linnets will feel some of the bruising Padiham challenges should have been punished by more than a free-kick.
But referee Mr W King seemed more concerned with telling players to 'keep it clean' when competing for the ball in the air.
Runcorn defender Jerome McIntyre, back from a long suspension, picked up the game's only booking.
LINNETS: Holcroft, McIntyre, Parle, Newell, Boden, Foran, Rollinson, Scott, Thompson, Lamb, Quirk (McCoy 82). Subs: not used J Swales, S Swales.
