Whitehaven lost 3-1 at Burscough Richmond in their latest West Lancashire League clash, but there were still positive for manager Jon-Karl Benson.
Last year’s champions have only lost once at home in 18 months, and Whitehaven travelled without several regulars.
But it was the West Cumbrians who went ahead after only 13 minutes from a spectacular long-range strike by Kian Goulding.
Unfortunately missed opportunities cost Whitehaven as they could have been 3-0 ahead by the time Burscough levelled on 23 minutes through Zach Carberry.
The rest of the half was pretty even with both sides having opportunities but a mixture of poor finishing and strong defending meant there were no further goals at the break.
The second half was dominated by Burscough as they showed why they have such a good record at home.
They took the lead on 56 minutes when Adam Sutton scored with a lovely header at the back post, guiding it home and giving keeper Tom Fowler no chance.
Whitehaven were forced onto the back foot, but did have a couple of chances before a third Burscough goal on the break from Will Doherty wrapped-up the points after 84 minutes.
Manager Benson thought Burscough won the game through their second-half performance but was still up-beat about the Whitehaven performance.
He said: “Burscough is a really tough place to come, as seen by their home record, but we gave them a good game as we always seem to do when we travel there.
“We are competitive in every game we play but at the minute we are lacking the killer instinct in front of goal and also enough depth to our squad.
“We had five regular first teamers missing and when you have to make substitutions it becomes so important.
“The majority of our reserve team in the County League won’t travel away, so the four lads who were on the bench at Burscough probably have about 30 minutes first team football between them.
“That is something we are going to have to address going forward if we want to get ourselves into the top half of the table.”
Whitehaven have a tough but exciting home game in prospect on Saturday when they host second-in-the-table Thornton Cleveleys.
*West Cumbrian neighbours Cleator Moor Celtic suffered a hugely disappointing 2-1 defeat at Lytham Town in the first round of the President’s Cup.
It was a delayed tie after being postponed the previous week and it was a shock for Premier
Goals from Danny Scarlett and Tom Eastham were enough to carry the home side safely into round two, despite Luke Close halving the deficit with five minutes left to play.
Celtic will look to get back to winning ways on Saturday when they host next-to-bottom Slye with Hest who have lost all 10 away games so far.
