Darlington RA 1 Sunderland RCA 0

skilltraining Northern League

Saturday, 25 October 2008

A very disappointing result at Darlington RA, which completely took the gloss off Sunderland's stuffing of the mags a couple of hours earlier. It was a blustery afternoon on a bumpy pitch, which made it difficult to play good football, or even to get the ball down and pass it, but we had most of the play throughout the game before RA popped up with a winner in the last minute, which Gary Hoggeth will be very upset that he failed to hold.

Adam McGuiness started for RCA wide left, with Anth Laidler at left back and Sparky Davison partnering Andy Jennings up front. The pattern of the game was set early on, with RCA having most of the ball but failing to make many inroads into a determined Darlington defence. Paul Sammons was his usual tigerish self in midfield for the home team, and chances were few and far between.

Sparky got his head to a couple of good Lee Owens crosses, but the keeper was equal too it, and we had a couple of decent corners, but otherwise not a lot to report.

Early in the second half Andy Jennings was surprised by a ball that came back to him and put a good chance wide of the post, and Adsy hit a good free kick over the top.

The ball continued to bounce around in midfield as both sides struggled to put a foot on the ball, and as the half wore on Darlo started to look dangerous from occasional breakaways. Glen Moan came into the fray for Anth laidler, and late on young Chris Youldon got another 10 minutes in his football education as a replacement for Sparky.

The game looked certain to end goalless until with 30 second of added time left a fairly innocous shot went through Hoggy's hands into the top of the net. Disaster! The ref blew for time almost immediately. A good chance to move up the table gone, a very bad day at the office, but still no need to panic, let's learn and move on.