Pilkington thrash out of sorts Darwen
Darwen came into this one looking to bounce back from a heavy away defeat at Ilkley Town – but, blighted by absences, The Salmoners never really got going and coasted through what turned out to be another miserable 90 minutes for Kenny Langford’s men.
For Darwen, things would start as they were unfortunately meant to go as the visitors found themselves in front with just two minutes gone. The ball broke to Adam Neill who tucked the ball into the bottom right-hand corner after some pretty slack defending from Darwen’s back five.
Eight minutes later, it was two. Pilkington’s number 9, Adam Gilchrist ran on to a ball over the top that beat the offside trap – obviously taking the backline out of the game in the process – and side-footed past Holden with relative ease.
Darwen were enjoying fairly comfortable spells of possession but weren’t really getting into the right areas. The one time that they did, Wilson-Heyes was ajudged to have been off-side.
On the quarter-hour mark, Luke Jarrold had one of those most unfortunate moments where (as the cliché goes) he probably wanted the ground to open up and swallow him when his cross-field pass went straight to Nathan Quirk. The Pilkington man put the visitors three to the good.
If there was one word to sum up Darwen at this point it would be frantic. The Salmoners looked completely out of control, like they were lacking any sort of composure and a shell of the side that got the better of South Liverpool on opening day.
HALF TIME: Darwen 0-3 Pilkington
Gibson saw his long-range attempt sail over the bar just after the restart.
A short corner almost led to a fourth Pilkington goal – a shot from the left-hand edge of the penalty area flew slightly high and wide of the top right corner.
Another two decent opportunities for the visitors came just moments later – a shot rolled just wide of the right-hand post before Holden had to make an impressive save.
A fantastic last-ditch tackle by Luke Jarrold was the only real standout moment for Darwen. Gilchrist – who had sent Holden to ground with a fake shot – would have the simplest of tasks in slotting the ball into an empty net to make it 0-4 had it not been for his crucial intervention.
Pilkington could have had three or four goals before they eventually got their seemingly inevitable fourth. The ball was played across the face of goal from the left-hand side and met by a Pilkington man, his effort hit the post but the rebound was smashed home from a couple of yards out.
A couple of chances came Darwen’s way before time was up. Steele’s curling effort from the right-hand edge of the 18-yard box went wide of the left-hand post. Wilson-Heyes tried his luck from distance but his attempt also failed to threaten Pilkington keeper, Andrew Heal.
FULL TIME: Darwen 0-4 Pilkington
The Salmoners travel to Bacup this Saturday (4th September).
THE TEAMS
DARWEN
STARTING XI
- Stefan Holden
- Lewis Cumpsty
- Matthew Johnson
- Luke Jarrold
- Samuel Holt
- Kiel Lonsdale ©
- Nathan Bond
- Sam Knowles
- Leon Creech
- Ryan Steele
- Rio Wilson-Heyes
SUBSTITUTES
12. Jamie Gibson
14. Jonathan Thomas
15. Alexander Mortimer
17. Joshua Liversedge
PILKINGTON
STARTING XI
- Andrew Heal
- Paul Watson
- Adam Howard
- Marcus Giglio
- Wade Rutherford
- Gary Kenny
- Stephen Wolhuter
- Adam Neill
- Adam Gilchrist ©
- Phil Marsh
- Nathan Quirk
SUBSTITUTES
12. Daniel Greene
14. Ben Maddocks
15. David Tickle
Lewis On Sport 
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