Hooray! City earned their first away win since the opening day of the season in a controversial game at Feethams, with the referee unfortunately taking much of the limelight once again. Gary Alexander scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot, David Beresford was sent off and Darlo had to change shirts in a fiery encounter.
The home side started off livily but the game was on a whole fairly un-eventful during the first 35 minutes, apart from the aforementioned change shirt change. Someone belatedly realised that our grey away shirt clashed badly with Darlington's white home shirt, and they performed a quick swap on the pitch. The match sparked in to life shortly before the break. Rodney Rowe latched on to a David Beresford pass in the area and knocked the ball past Craig Liddle, only to be clattered to the floor by the Darlo defender. After 2 minutes of protest, during which Gary Alexander was booked, the former West Ham striker struck the spot kick home, sending Andy Collett the wrong way. As the half entered in to stoppage time tensions were mounting, and David Beresford was sensationally dismissed for a two footed lunge on a Quakers player near the touchline, a decision which provoked angry debate between the opposition benches. Barry Conlon was then brilliantly denied by Matt Glennon, and Rowe had to be taken off before the break, with pain from his arm/shoulder brought on from the foul for the penalty as the half drew to a close. However, before the whistle was blown, Phil Brumwell inexplicably was only booked for a challenge on Ryan Williams that was equally as bad as the sending off offence minutes earlier.
The second half was a real battle for the Tigers, and pleasingly, the players responded brilliantly. The home side could not break down our rearguard, brilliantly marshalled by Justin Whittle and Nicky Mohan, and complemented by the rock solid Mike Edwards and Andy Holt, and struggled to create any clear chances until late in the half. Meanwhile, Edwards and Ryan Williams both missed easy chances to increase our lead. Glennon was drawn on again towards the end of the game, and produced marvellous saves both times. First, he stopped and quickly held on to a Barry Conlon shot, and later dived to his right to save a header from Paul Heckingbottom. |
