Atherton LR suffered their first home league defeat of the season at the hands of a very strong Darwen side, losing 2-0 on Saturday.

Tom Romano had LR’s best chance of the first half when, on the 15-minute mark, a quick turn and break granted him space in the box to cut inside, however the shot curled right into the post and bounced out of play - a huge let off for the Darwen defence.

The NWCFL First Division North clash was heating up and it boiled over in the 18th minute when Romano found himself through again, but a rash decision by Darwen’s Dimeji Willan saw him collide with the LR man, giving the referee no choice but to dismiss him.

With Darwen down to 10, LR worked to continue from where they left off.

However in the closing stage of the first half, Darwen found themselves in a good attacking area - there was a shout in the box and appeals to the referee, which resulted in Lance Houghton seeing red for an off-the-ball incident.

Returning from the interval, with both sides deadlocked the question was who would find a breakthrough first.

And only a minute into the half, Darwen launched a quick counter-attack which saw a lofted cross by Charlie LLoyd find Jamie Ramwell who struck a precise volley home to give Darwen the lead.

Things would go from bad to worse for LR in the 58th minute, when some high pressure by Darwen allowed them to capitalise on a defensive mistake - as Connor Hughes rounded the home keeper and doubled the visitors’ lead.

Darwen held the reins for the rest of the second half and despite a short turn in tempo in the hosts’ favour, and a late second yellow for Bruno Severino, they were unable to capitalise against the defensively-strong Salmoners.

LR boss Dave Jones said: “We had some really good chances to put the ball into the back of the net and if you don’t take them, anything can happen.

“I thought the second half we were strong apart from the first 10 minutes, I thought we were just a bit chaotic, didn’t really get control of the game and made some poor rash decisions and ultimately got punished for them.”

LR travel to Route One Rovers tonight as they look to progress to the last eight of the Edward Case Cup.