On a wet and windy night at the Falcon Complex, Windscale picked up the points from a 2-1 win over West Auckland reserves.
Stephen Fawcett’s Wearside League side were looking to make it three consecutive wins on the spin.
The Atoms started brightly as, inside the first three minutes Travis Fyfe found Ryan Fitzwilliam who played a quick one-two.
It put Fyfe in on goal, but a recovering block was enough to send it behind for a corner.
Owen Woodburn looked to get the Atoms account open for the night as he skipped past one defender, but his shot was blocked.
It was enough to take the sting out of the shot and make it a safe catch for West’s keeper Bell.
It would be Fyfe who eventually opened the Atoms account on 17 minutes when Ray Sempill picked up a cleared corner and got by a man to ply in Fyfe.
He cut back against the grain and delivered an unstoppable effort beyond Bell.
Jack Wordsworth was vibrant all night on the right wing, and when he swung in a cross, which was not cleared properly it landed at the feet of Woodburn.
Unfortunately for the recently signed forward, his shot was lashed well over the bar, and into a neighbouring back garden.
From this, West Auckland came forward, and it took some smart hold up play by Fitzwilliam, who was defensively superb in the first half, to do enough and allow Sempill back in to make the eventual block.
In the 29th minute, a set piece delivered in the area by skipper Reece Fretwell, was nodded home by Aiden Kegg to double the Windscale lead.
For the reminder of the first half, the Atoms tried to turn West Auckland around, which left the likes of Fyfe, Woodburn and Wordsworth chasing balls in behind, none of which succeeded.
Although trailing 2-0 West Auckland were determined to get back into the game, and for the first 10 minutes of the second half, looked capable of doing just that.
Zack Blythe was wide of the mark with the first and forced a save out of Levi McAdam with the second.
With the worsening weather conditions, the pitch began to tear up, eliminating some of the fancy football that the Atoms can produce.
After a period of what looked to be the football version of ping-pong, Fawcett introduced Andrew Begbie from the bench, which helped calm down the Atoms and get them back on the ball.
Controlling possession, it allowed The Atoms to be creative with their forward runs, one of which almost paid off. Woodburn fed in Fyfe, who looked to be in on goal, but was brought back for a dubious offside.
Ben Mahaffy, Lewis Selkirk and Jayden Fulton were all introduced from the bench in the 73rd minute, replacing the front three, and Kieran Lawson replaced Ryan Fitzwilliam minutes later to strengthen the tiring Atoms.
The Atoms looked to have put the game to rest and secured their three points, as Mahaffy threaded an exquisite cross-field pass to Fulton.
He took it in his stride without hesitation, and sent in a low cross into the box for the onrushing Fretwell, but he turned his shot wide from five yards.
West Auckland did eventually get what ended up being a consolation goal, as Leeson was caught in behind by Blythe, West Auckland’s top scorer, who slotted home past McAdam.
The final few minutes just saw the Atoms put bodies on the line to see out the win, which they did and gained ther three points in the Wearside League which sees them stay 12th.
There’s no game for Windscale on Saturday, as a fixture against Farringdon has been scratched and rearranged for a later date, so their next action is Tuesday night, away at Durham FC Corinthians who are 7th, seven points better off than the Atoms.
You can hear what manager Stephen Fawcett thought of the game by listening below:
