Windscale’s first home fixture in the Wearside League resulted in a narrow 2-1 defeat against Easington Lane last night.
This was a much improved performance after last Friday evening’s loss away to Willington.
Indeed with sharper finishing the Atoms would have registered their first win.
Both teams started the game on the front foot with the Atoms pressing early. However, it was Easington who almost took the lead.
A shot from Callum Hasnell was brilliantly saved by Windscale keeper Levi McAdam, before a second effort struck the post.
Travis Fyfe almost gave the hosts the lead, slipping the ball beyond Easington keeper Ciaran Ure, only to see Jake Bowman clearing the ball off the line.
The game was being played out at a fast pace, with Windscale threatening the Easington goal with a couple of efforts by Aiden Kegg just shy of the goal.
Lewis Selkirk got on the end of a Reece Fretwell free kick, and his header beat Ure but was the wrong side of the keeper’s post.
Easington took the lead in the 29th minute. A low ball across the front of goal was hammered home by Joe Williams giving McAdam no chance.
The remainder of the half saw some frantic play mainly situated in the midfield areas, but Easington retained their one goal advantage at the break.
Windscale regained parity early in the second period when Selkirk fired the ball home in the 49th minute, his second goal in two games.
A few minutes later Fyfe hit a long range effort which had the keeper scrambling, but unfortunately for the hosts his effort skimmed the crossbar.
With play nearing the hour mark, Easington regained the lead.
A ball to the back post was guided into the back of the net by Callum Haswell.
Play was frantic for the last 30 minutes, with Easington set on defending their one goal lead and Windscale intent on levelling the scores.
A good strike from Fretwell was held by Ure while a corner from Selkirk was met by Matty Pierce but his effort went over the bar.
Easington almost increased their lead, but Williams in a good position could only find the side netting.
There were signs that things are starting to knit together with the Windscale squad after a number of changes in the close season.
A difficult early fixture programme will be a good challenge and one they will relish.
They have a fixture-free weekend with Silksworth the next visitors to the Falcon Complex on Wednesday, 7.45pm start.
