Whitehaven picked up their first point in the West Lancashire League when they drew 2-2 at Rossendale.
In the end the home side needed a 96th minute equaliser to earn their point and deny the West Cumbrians what would have been an outstanding result.
Assistant manager Chris Rourke said: “I suppose I’ve got mixed feelings about the result. After 10 minutes in the dug-out I put my head in my hands because we should have been 3-0 down and I thought we were going to be embarrassed.
“So if someone had said you will get a draw I would have snapped their hand off, yet when we conceded so late it felt like we should have won the game.
“But in all honesty we can’t complain about not getting all three points. We were way off it in the first half, chasing shadows but through some poor finishing and a couple of great saves from our keeper Aaron Carter we kept the score at 0-0.”
Eventually though, on 30 minutes, Rossendale did make the breakthrough. There was a feeling that the home winger was well offside when he latched onto a pass, but his delivery was perfect and Tom Hartley scored with a good glancing header.
Rourke added: “Even though we’d held back the tide for half an hour I couldn’t see it getting any easier and I was thinking about damage limitation as we’d shown absolutely nothing to suggest anything other than we were going to get a hiding.”
Then it happened.. For the first time Whitehaven strung three passes together which split the Rossendale defence and Carl Denver, for the second time in a week, was brought down in the area and Bobby Carter made no mistake from the spot for the equaliser ahead of half-time.
At half time Rourke and manager Jon-Karl Benson were just relieved to be in the game. The interval talk centred on staying calm and staying in the game, while the players were asked to increase the effort.
Second-half in fact Whitehaven were a different team, taking the game to Rossendale with confidence and forcing the home side to play in their own half.
Though both sides had chances to take the lead it was Whitehaven who managed it on 80 minutes. They broke smartly and when Josh Green delivered the cross Aidan Smith had got forward from left back to get on the end of it and finish in style.
Rourke takes up the narrative – “After that it was a bit of a blur to be honest. Rossendale really put it on us and unfortunately we couldn’t hold out as they equalised in the 96th minute with another headed goal.
“Rossendale are the best team we have played and I’m sure they will be up there at the end of the season.
“They have a lot of good players, much more experienced than ours who have probably played at a higher level.
“We had one 26-year-old and the rest were all under-23 including 17-year-old Even Stephenson who was fantastic.
“We are still learning and finding our way but the potential and longevity in the squad is ridiculous. If they stay together they could play together for another 10 years, which is very exciting.”
On Tuesday Whitehaven are back in action when they visit Slyne with Hest.
