Windscale’s penultimate Wearside League fixture of the season saw them beat a good Richmond side 3-1.
The general view was that Richmond are probably in a false position in the League standings, five places below Windscale.
It was the home side who started the game far stronger with the Atoms struggling to deal with the Richmond formation and high work rate.
Richmond created a couple of half chances which Windscale handled well preventing these from developing into anything of significance.
The Atoms began to have success playing the ball either behind or over the top of the Richmond defence. Joe Atkinson, in particular, created some good positions for Ben Graham but the Cumbrians were unable to open the scoring in that spell.
However the first goal of the contest did eventually come and it was the visitors who broke the deadlock.
Kieran Fraser beat Richmond’s offside trap to work himself a one on one position against the keeper. He slipped the ball beyond the advancing custodian only to see his effort rebound back off the upright. Fortunately the ball landed back at his feet allowing him to tap it into the back of the net.
Richmond responded to this instantly bringing the scores back level, albeit with a little good fortune.
Windscale gave the ball away cheaply on the half-way line resulting in a good delivery into their box. A Richmond striker managed to get a toe to the ball and despite Byran Todd’s challenge, the ball looped over Andrew Richardson in the Windscale goal to bring parity.
The Atoms kept to their game plan of getting the ball beyond the Richmond defence and it paid dividends again.
They regained the lead following a good ball down the line to Joe Phillipson who delivered an excellent low driven cross to Ben Graham who steered the ball home from seven yards.
With ten minutes of the half remaining Windscale added to their total to take a 3-1 lead at the interval.
A misplaced throw from the Richmond keeper was intercepted by skipper Reece Fretwell. He did what he does best, carrying the ball from distance into the Richmond penalty area then, after skipping round a defender, slotted the ball into the back of the net
The second period saw the Atoms managing the game successfully. They had one particular incident of concern. An aggressive challenge on a Richmond forward by Todd looked all the way to be worthy of penalty award. Fortunately for Windscale, the referee did not see the challenge that way deciding not to award a spot kick.
Windscale’s use of their substitutes, enabling the energy levels to be maintained, played a huge part in the win.
With 30 minutes remaining, Darren Donald, playing his last game for the Wearside team was particularly prominent. As usual he covered every blade of grass working hard for the cause.‘Dazza’ a Windscale stalwart, will be a big miss next season.
It was also fortunate that after missing two games, regular keeper Ian Studholme was on the bench and was able to take his usual position between the posts replacing Andrew Richardson following injury.
The other three substitutes, Ray Sempill, Andrew Marshelsea and Sam Branney all played their part to secure the victory which took Windscale’s unbeaten run to six games, earning 16 points from a possible 18.
The Atoms travel to Wolviston next Saturday to complete their League programme hoping to continue their run of form.
