DARLINGTON RA JUNIORS 5 BEECHWOOD YOUTH 2
At Brinkburn Road the juniors played against Beechwood Youth from Middlesbrough, a team lying second in the league and who the R.A. have never beaten in three previous meetings.
The kick-off was delayed by fifteen minutes by Beechwood, who started the game with ten men. When the eleventh man came the R.A. were 3-0 up. Liam "big al" Allen opened the scoring firing home from 12 yards. Jack Ridley, back from international duty, scored the R.A.'s second from the penalty spot after Tom Watson was fouled. Watson himself scored the third when the Beechwood keeper dropped the ball in the box. The junior's had controlled the game passing the ball well and could have been leading by more at the break.
After half-time the next goal was crucial and with Beechwood now on level terms in numbers it was them who scored it after breaking the R.A.'s off-side trap. It would have been easy for the young heads of the R.A. to go down but they showed great character and scored their second penalty following the move of the match, Tom Watson again being fouled in the area, allowing Ridley to send the keeper the wrong way. A determined Beechwood never gave up and scored next making it 4-2 with fifteen minutes of a highly entertaining match left.
The juniors continued to play the better football with the Beechwood keeper making some terrific saves to keep his team in the game, one of those saves was to enable the R.A. to grab their fifth and secure the three points after he could only push the ball onto the bar allowing Ridley to complete his hat-trick. A final score of 5-2 to the R.A. was well earned and fully justified.
MATCH RATINGS
ANDREWS 8 WILLIAMS 8 DITCHBURN 9 HOWELL 8 MELLOR 9 HANCOCK 9 HARRISON 9 WATSON 9 RIDLEY 8 GREY 8 L.ALLEN 8
SUBS : C.ALLEN 7 WHITE7 HUTCHINSON 8 HILTON 7