MARK Walsh has left Darwen under a cloud after a fall-out with manager Steve Wilkes.

Striker Walsh, 36, hurled a volley of abuse at boss Wilkes after being substituted in Tuesday's 3-0 Marsden Lancashire Challenge Trophy defeat at Conference side Southport.

He refused to acknowledge the oncoming substitute and threw a water bottle into the glass dug-out.

Walsh, a former Clitheroe and Great Harwood forward, said: "I have done things like that at all the clubs I've been at, all players do it, but usually the manager bawls you out in the dressing room and you get on with it.

"But he rang me up the next night and said 'I'm not playing you on Saturday for disciplinary reasons' so I said 'if you're not playing me on Saturday you're not playing me at all' so I am looking for another club."

Wilkes said: "It is a shame because Mark is a good player but no one is bigger than the club.

"If he's swearing at me, what are the other players thinking? There were two 18-year-old lads sat in the dug out.

"I rang him up and asked him if he was going to apologise and he said 'no', so that was that really."

Darwen travel to struggling Oldham Town in NWCFL Division Two tomorrow without Scott Derbyshire, who has facial injuries after an incident in Bolton on Sunday night.

Wilkes said: "When you play teams at the bottom of the league you expect to win but we shouldn't count our chickens.

"Oldham is always a tough place to play.

"They have a sloping pitch so you're running downhill one half and the needing a rope to get you uphill the other half."