Windscale were indebted to Workington Reds for staging this week’s midweek fixture due to ongoing work at the Falcon Complex.
This was a fixture that the Atoms should not have lost but also did not do enough to win but it ended in a 4-2 victory for visitors Norton and Stockton Ancients.
They went behind in the 6th minute after conceding a penalty. The resulting kick from Marcus Laing gave Atoms keeper Lee Jolly no chance to save.
Parity was restored 20 minutes later. Following a cross from the right, Leo Brennan rose to despatch a header beyond Norton’s Kieron Ezard
Norton were shaken by the response with Windscale taking the lead two minutes later when Lewis Jolly fired home following a strong run.
It was Ezard who came to the visitors’ rescue when he made a world class save to deny Windscale a third and keep his team in the hunt.
In this see-saw game, Norton regained parity following some sloppy play by the Atoms. Joe Taylor hammered a shot into the top corner from outside the box so the teams shared four goals at the break.
Neither team were able to make any addition to their tally until the Atoms conceded two late goals.
During the second period, ball retention was the main issue and a failure to press Norton into errors. In the 81st minute, Taylor completed his brace of goals and the final nail in the Atoms coffin was hammered in by Josh Stiff with a minute of the game remaining.
Windscale have no fixture this weekend and will need to regroup prior to next Wednesday’s fixture away to Darlington RA.
