Following their mid-week trek across to Durham on Thursday night, Windscale were quickly back in action.
They took to the field again having had one day’s rest to take on Darlington RA – and frustratingly lost in the final minute to the only goal of a game they dominated.
The Atoms were on top from the start. The first chance fell to Matt Metcalf who was flagged offside when through on goal.
Metcalf again was involved in a controversial decision a few minutes later. He fired in a powerful shot which struck the underside of the crossbar, the ball bouncing down with the match official adjudging that it had not crossed the line.
The Windscale injury list grew longer 22 minutes into the game when the reliable Ross Leeson had to leave the field to be replaced by Dan Morgan.
The Atoms continued to dominate the attacking play, producing a number of scoring opportunities.
Matty Pierce headed wide from a corner, while Lewis Jolly and Metcalf combined to free Jolly who was chopped down by the Darlington fullback, but the resulting free kick came to nothing.
It was Metcalf again who found himself one on one with the Darlington keeper Tyler Dickinson who managed to smother the effort on goal.
The final notable act of the half found Jolly through on goal, the chasing defender getting enough on the ball to see the effort dragged wide of the post.
The second period understandably found the Atoms energy levels reduced considering their effort 36 hours earlier at Durham.
However, they still controlled the game, their only deficiency was not being clinical enough in front of goal.
The game ended in controversy with a goal by Darlington in the final minute.
A ball was delivered across the front of the Atoms goal producing a melee involving three players with Atoms keeper Lee Jolly, a Darlington forward and a Windscale defender all on the ground.
The ball ending in the back of the Atoms net after striking the Darlington players hand. Unfortunately for the Atoms, none of the match officials were near enough to the play to adjudicate on this issue and the “goal” was allowed to stand.
This was hard to take from a game which the hosts had dominated. However, such is the spirit within the club, Windscale will dust themselves-s down ready to travel across to Richmond next weekend for their meeting in the second round of the Shipowners Cup.
