WARRINGTON Rylands slipped to defeat this evening as they failed to make it three wins in a row.
Buoyant after beating second-placed Hyde United on Saturday, the caretaker management team of senior players Dean Furman and Sam Egerton led Blues again but they fell to a 2-0 reverse at Atherton Collieries.
Adam Rooney opened the scoring for the hosts midway through the second half, with Jay Fitzmartin sealing the victory in injury time.
The result drops Rylands to 10th in the Northern Premier League Premier Division table, four points shy of the play-off spots.
"As soon as we turned up tonight and saw the conditions, we knew what we were up against," Furman said.
"Unfortunately, we didn’t match it and that’s a disappointment for us.
"We knew they were going to throw long balls into the box and that we had to be good from set pieces, so to let one in from a set piece we knew was coming was really poor.
"That was in our best period of the game – we had a 10-15 minute spell at the start of the second half when we started pretty brightly.
"Overall on the balance of play, we didn’t deserve anything from the game.
"After the elation of Saturday, we let ourselves down albeit in very different conditions."
There was very little goalmouth action in the first half to keep the 272-strong crowd entertained.
Playing down the considerable Skuna Stadium slope, the home side had the better goal scoring opportunities and only went in at the break goalless due to two fantastic saves by Luke Pilling.
The closest Rylands came to hitting the target in the first half came when Dylan Vassallo’s free kick evaded everyone in the Colls area and drifted just wide of the far post.
Colls – playing a more direct style than their visitors – started the second half strongly and went close to breaking the deadlock five minutes into the second half.
Rylands lost the ball on halfway and allowed Colls to break down the left and a low cross found Ben Hardcastle, whose shot from close range struck the underside of the bar and rebounded into Pilling’s hands.
The home side took the lead in the 67th minute. In a game littered with fouls, Colls launched a free kick into the Rylands area where it found the head of an unmarked, Adam Rooney who guided the ball into the bottom corner with Pilling rooted to the spot.
Pilling made another sharp save in the 75th minute before Rylands broke downfield and had their first shot on target of the night when Vassallo shot from outside the area, but Colls keeper Nico Defreitas-Hansen gathered comfortably.
Pushing forward in search of an equaliser, Rylands started to cause a few concerns for the Colls resolute defence, their best chances coming from crosses from the right by Kallum Mantack.
The first was just inches above the head of substitute Daniel Okwute’s head as Defreitas- Hansen missed his punch and the second found Johnny Hunt at the far post, but his shot whistled just off target with the keeper beaten.
For all of Rylands’ endeavours, the home side continued to look the more dangerous and were rewarded with a second goal in stoppage time.
Trying to dribble out from the back, Pilling was caught in possession, losing the ball to allow Jay Fitzmartin the simple task of tapping into an empty net.
Rylands: Pilling, Hayde (Robinson), Hunt, Mustoe, Egerton, Hockenhull, Neild, Furman, Pratt (Okwute), Mantack, Vassallo. Subs not used: Wright, Cooke, N'Mai
Additional reporting by Garry Clarke
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