Report: Warrington Town 1-1 Atherton Collieries

Warrington Town maintain their unbeaten run despite dropping two points in a 1-1 draw to Atherton Collieries at Cantilever Park.

Jordan Buckley had given them a first half lead that was cancelled out by former Yellows striker Scott Bakkor in the second half.

In truth, a point was the least that Colls deserved, especially after they had taken the game to the hosts after half time.

They had the better of the opening exchanges too, and only a fine one-handed save by Tony Thompson denied the excellent Jay Fitzmartin on 12 minutes.

From the resulting corner, Luca Defreitas-Hansen crashed a header against the crossbar.

That wake up call spurred the Yellows in to life, and within a couple of minutes they had the lead. Sean Williams played a free kick short to Andy White, who created space and whipped a ball in that was poked home by Buckley.

Going a goal behind didn’t derail Atherton and they almost equalised when Adam Rooney’s mishit cross almost snuck in at the far post, with Thompson alert and able to retreat to tip over the bar.

The only chances the Yellows could muster were half ones at that, the best probably Isaac Buckley-Ricketts cutting in from the left and dragging a soft shot through to Nico Defreitas-Hansen in the Colls goal.

What changed the game was an early second half substitution which saw Atherton sacrifice Rooney for attacker Marcus Cusani, another man familiar with the surroundings at Cantilever Park.

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From then, Colls were on the front foot for long periods and by the hour mark they were on level terms.

A soft free-kick conceded tight to the right touchline was whipped in by Fitzmartin, beyond Defreitas-Hansen but not Bakkor who swept in at the far post.

A triple substitution on 64 minutes perhaps reflected the pattern of the game, and eventually Stefan Mols and Luke Duffy started to influence the game.

Before then though, Defreitas-Hansen had a header cleared off the line by Josh Seary as Colls went close to taking the lead.

Duffy’s trickery in the box carved out two half chances of rhimself, the first a fizzing shot that whistled wide, and then the second a lovely side-foot effort with little back lift that went similarly just wide.

Having scored two late goals in the opening home win over Morpeth, the Yellows went to the end again and off a last minute corner, Isaac Buckley-Ricketts headed over.

Warrington Town had to settle for a point ahead of Saturday’s away trip to Ashton United.

Warrington Town: Thomspon, Seary, White, Hannigan, Gumbs, Harris, Howard (Duffy), Williams, Buckley (Amis), Dixon (Mols), Buckley-Ricketts. Unused subs: McDonald, Putnam.

Atherton Collieries: Defreitas-Hansen, Brown, Amado, Rooney (Cusani), Lafferty, Hansen, Kershaw, Lenehan, Bakkor (Bakkor), Fitzmartin (Nicholls), Smith. Unused subs: Roberts.

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