Heysham Atoms 0 - Dalton 26

North West Counties Division Three

THE Atoms opened up their league season at Heysham High, with a disappointing defeat against the well-established Division Three side Dalton from the Barrow area.

After an intense pre-season training programme, culminating in two tough friendlies, the Atoms had high hopes of making a good impression in their new league.

Dalton missed out on promotion last season by one place and just one point and showed that they could be right up there with the pace setters this time around.

The Atoms team had a fresh look about it with a few key positional changes from last term and the introduction of Steven Graham, Josh O'Donnell and the returning Guy Richardson at full back.

The opening 20 minutes was very encouraging for the Atoms, who were employing a simple but effective game plan and Billy Livingstone was able to peg back Dalton with his new-found kicking techniques.

Atoms were getting to the right areas of the field but a wrong option or a badly executed play let Dalton relieve the pressure.

Mark Walker, operating at loose forward, was making plenty of in-roads into the Dalton defensive line and Sean Weed and Callum Hall were causing a few problems in the right centre channel.

All this good work came to nothing though, as Dalton defended their line manfully.

On the 25-minute mark Dalton opened the scoring after an Atoms error gifted them possession.

The ball was moved to the right, an overlap created and a simple two-on-one pass put Dalton into the lead.

Atoms regrouped and tried to implement their game plan once more, but as the half wore on the handling errors began to mount.

As the half was drawing to a close an Atoms offload in the middle of the park went astray and quick as a flash Dalton had capitalised on the gift, going in at the left corner for an 8-0 half-time lead.

The second period became a frustrating one for the Atoms as they were unable to exert any sustained pressure on the Dalton line.

Dave McVernon broke the solid defensive line of Dalton and galloped 30 yards, but was brought down inches from the whitewash.

In his attempt to play the ball quickly he was impeded by a Dalton defender and when his frustration boiled over and he took the law into his own hands, the subsequent red card meant the Atoms were forced to play the last 25 minutes with only 12 men.

A Dalton score right under the posts further compounded the Atoms' disappointment.

Keith Hartlebury and Rob Shaw worked tirelessly for the Atoms but the stand-out player in the pack was 16-year-old prop forward Josh O'Donnell.

His direct running and solid defensive technique won him plenty of plaudits and he certainly repaid the faith shown in him by coaches Sadler and Crow.

The final quarter became a bit messy and lacked the shape of the first period.

Because of the lack of field position the Atoms were having to push the pass and chase the game.

Two late Dalton tries hammered the scoreboard, as their extra-man paid off as the ball was given plenty of width.

It was a disappointing start in terms of the result, but a great deal of positives still came out of the performance. The Atoms will have to get up with the pace very quickly though if they are to make a serious impression in Division Three.

Heysham Atoms: G Richardson, C Hall, S Weed, B Livingstone, G Winder, G Lithgow, K Hartlebury, L Hall, A Helme, J O'Donnell, R Shaw, L Harvey, M Walker. Res: S Graham, M Holmes, D McVernon, N Walker.

Well the season has started and we are off to a bit of a shaky start against our Cumbrian neighbours Dalton. 26-0 wasn't in our script for our introduction into 3 rd division of the Mark Norris North West Counties League!

The first 25 minutes was brilliant and everything was going to our game plan. Our defence was intact and our possession and attack was relentless, 8 times we were within the opposition's 20 meter zone and attacking in the first 25 min but could not get across the line.

14 missed tackles along with only 10 completed possession sets meant that the Atoms trailed 8-0 at halftime.

The talk at half time was to make sure that we control our possession better complete our sets and don't miss as many tackles as we did in the first half.

The second half lacked direction and discipline and Dalton piled on 18 unanswered points.

33 misses tackles; 16 completed sets out of a possible 33 possessions for the game meant that we never gave ourselves many opportunities to impress. A mammoth 209 tackles had to be made to throughout the game with Mark Walker leading the way with 30 tackles and 14 hits with Sean Weed and Liam Hall following closely with 22 each.

I believe that the Atoms are a better side than the score indicated against Dalton and more self belief and discipline throughout the next few weeks will see a lot of different outcomes. Special mention must go to young Josh O'Donnell . Only 16 years of age and already selected in a starting line up Josh played with maturity and courage and will need to continue to lift week in a week out.

Best players: Mark Walker, Liam Hall, Josh O'Donnell