Lewis On Sport

Salmoners suffer heavy defeat to title-chasing Holker

Darwen suffered a heavy 7-1 home defeat at the hands of title-chasing Holker Old Boys last Saturday (5 March).

Goals from Brandon Collins and Kevin Watkin saw the side from Lancaster race into a 0-2 lead before the break.

The visitors bagged five more – with substitute Tom Dawson scoring a hat-trick – in the second 45 before Leon Creech salvaged a consolation deep into added time.

Going into this one, Holker were looking to close the gap on league-leaders Bury.

Darwen, on the other hand, were wanting to build on a positive result away to The Shakers in mid-week (1 March) to crank the pressure on their relegation-rivals up a notch.

Holker’s number 11 Brandon Collins put the away side in front with a perfect curled effort that nestled in the top-right corner. Darwen were caught sleeping in the build-up, however. Very disappointing. Just three minutes gone, 0-1.

Number 7 Jamie Hodgson troubled Holden with a fierce strike from outside the area. Darwen’s stopper pushed over.

Then, some nice play down the left from Darwen culminated in Steele firing not far wide of the left-hand post from about 25 yards out.

The visitors doubled their advantage when Darwen were left dumbfounded by a near-post corner from the left which was glanced towards goal by Kevin Watkin. Steele couldn’t clear on the line and Darwen found themselves 0-2 behind with only a quarter of an hour gone. 

The Salmoners were enjoying plenty of the ball but were struggling to create a clear-cut opportunity.

Wilson-Heyes had a clear sight of goal from a long-ball Holden but a Holker man was quick to snuff out the danger.

Jamie Hodgson almost scored an absolutely superb goal and almost put the game to bed when he cut in from the right and searched for the far corner from long range.

It was that close you felt it must have skimmed a layer of paint off the left upright on its way past. The view from the press box was awesome.

Unfortunately for Kenny Langford’s men, Darwen could only conjure up half-chances.

The game felt very flat for a period before Creech forced a good save out of Holker’s keeper from a tight angle and Chris Lynch went close with a header from a corner.

HALF TIME: DARWEN 0-2 HOLKER OLD BOYS

SECOND HALF

The second period got off to a pretty quiet and uneventful start.

William McGladdery went close to adding a third for the visitors, his shot from just outside of the area whistled past the left-hand post.

Things got worse for Darwen when Holker’s number 14 Tom Dawson latched onto a really nice ball in-behind through the middle, Holden got a hand to the striker’s sliding effort but the Darwen keeper couldn’t keep it out. Five minutes into the half, 0-3.

Dawson smashed in a second just a couple of minutes later. He stepped past a Darwen man on the edge of the penalty box and rifled the ball past Holden and into the bottom left-hand corner. 0-4. 56 minutes gone.

The visitors had dealt a huge blow to Darwen’s goal difference and it wasn’t over yet.

The visitors were awarded the rare thing of an indirect free-kick for a back-pass.

Remarkably, The Greens fell victim to a moment of pure confusion as number 7 touched the ball but whatever he had planned for his teammate doing didn’t happen and Darwen cleared.

Steele whipped in a dangerous-looking delivery from free-kick on the left, which Sam Knowles was unfortunate not to get on the end of. This was the only real moment that Darwen had created in terms of going forward.

With just over 10 to go, Holker were in almost-complete control of proceedings, and they added goals 5 and 6 in quick succession.

Tom Dawson, scorer of Holker’s third and fourth goals, headed across for Gareth Smith, who’s low effort rolled beyond Holden into the bottom left-hand corner.

The sixth came from a long-ball over the top which was finished by number 15 Samuel Joel.

A seventh followed thereafter as Tom Dawson wrapped up his hat-trick. All three of the substitute’s goals had been superb finishes. This time he thumped the ball across goal into the bottom left-hand corner from inside the six-yard box. 0-7.

With seconds to go, Creech did bag a consolation when Holker’s keeper fumbled a lofted across the face into the striker’s path. 1-7.

FULL TIME: DARWEN 1-7 HOLKER OLD BOYS

The referee’s full-time whistle brought to a close what had been a grim afternoon for The Salmoners.

THE TEAMS

DARWEN

STARTING XI

1. Stefan Holden

2. Lewis Cumpsty

3. Thomas Entwistle

4. Christopher Lynch

5. Christopher Smalley

6. Martin Middlehurst

7. Billy Flitcroft

8. Sam Knowles

9. Leon Creech

10. Ryan Steele ©

11. Rio Wilson-Heyes

SUBSTITUTES

12. Enoch Takpe

14. Clayton Gorman

15. Jack Doherty

16. Luke Jarrold

18. Samuel Holt

HOLKER OLD BOYS

STARTING XI

1. Samuel Stephens

2. Joe Amison

3. William McGladdery

4. Joshua Woodend

5. Jamie Mellen ©

6. Patrick Allington

7. Jamie Hodgson

8. Kevin Watkin

9. Jason Walker

10. Sean Patterson

11. Brandon Collins

SUBSTITUTES

12. Callum Baynes

14. Tom Dawson

15. Samuel Joel

16. Gareth Smith

18. Phillip Coombe