Wheats and Jack give Quakers victory
By Ray Simpson
Five successive home wins
Darlington 2 Boston United 1
Scorer: Wheater 4 mins, 1-0, Lambert 22 mins, 2-0, Elliott 60 mins, 2-1
Attendance 1474
Two first half goals set up Quakers for their fifth successive home win and put them closer to the play offs.
David Wheater opened the scoring after 4 minutes then Jack Lambert added a second by the midway point in the first half to put Quakers in control.
Boston rallied in the second half and pulled a goal back. Even though they had a man sent off, they piled on the pressure but Quakers held on well.
Quakers took the lead on 4 minutes, a low corner kick was curled in by Jack Lambert into the near post, and skipper David Wheater flicked the ball in past the keeper.
Ben Hedley then received treatment for a for a foul by Femi Seriki, who was booked.
Boston had a chance on 8 minutes, a free kick was curled in from the left and nodded down for Brad Nicholson to fire over the top.
Wheater conceded a corner as Seriki tried to break through, then Kallum Griffiths shepherded the ball out under pressure from Seriki again.
A move right to left ended with Ben Hedley’s cross going just past the far post.
At the other end, Danny Elliott tried his luck with a left foot shot from the edge of the box that Taylor allowed to go wide.
Griffiths found Cameron Thompson on side with a ball down the right, but Thompson’s low cross was cut out for a corner.
Quakers went 2-0 up on 22 minutes . A corner from the right by Danny Rose was headed away as far as Jack Lambert, who wrongfooted a defender 25 yards out and lashed a right foot shot into the bottom corner for his seventh goal of the season.
Jake Cassidy did well to force a corner on 39 minutes which was floated by Rose over to the far post where Kevin Dos Santos miskicked on the corner of the six yard box.
It was nearly 3-0 on 45 minutes. Lambert found space on the right, and squared the ball for Dos Santos to strike a first time right foot shot just wide of the right hand post.
Half time 2-0
Adriano Moke covered his defence well at the start of the second half when Boston tried to break and he put in a sliding tackle.
Quakers nearly scored on 57 minutes. Tom Platt had a header cleared off the Darlington line, but Quakers broke quickly down the right through Thompson, who put a great ball into the middle that Dos Santos couldn’t turn in.
Boston were given a penalty on 60 minutes. Rose was adjudged to have committed a foul just inside the area, and the referee awarded a penalty which Elliott converted.
The visitors nearly levelled on 75 minutes, when a corner came in from the right and Ntumba Massanka headed just over.
Boston were reduced to ten men on 78 minutes when Luke Shiels was shown a straight red for a tackle from behind on Cassidy on the halfway line.
Quakers defended well after that, and it was nearly 3-1 when Mondal found Dos Santos with a good reverse pass and he set up Cassidy whose low shot was well saved by Dewhurst.
But Boston piled forward, and keeper Tommy Taylor made a very good save from Massanka.
In stoppage time Wheater went off injured and had to be replaced by Danny Ellis, who headed away a corner as soon as he came on.
Final score: Darlington 2 Boston 1
Team:
Taylor, Griffiths, Wheater (sub Ellis 90+1), Lawlor, Hedley, Rose (sub Purver 82), Moke, Dos Santos, Lambert (sub Mondal 84), Thompson, Cassidy
Subs: O'Neill, Lowe
Boston: Dewhurst, Platt, Shiels, Thanoj (sub Preston 46), Burrow, Elliott, Abbott, Leesley, Byrne, Seriki, Nicholson
Subs: Duxbury, Shanks, Massanka, Sault
Booking: Seriki
We'd like to thank DAFTS for being our match sponsors
https://dafts1883.wordpress.com/
And Controlled Access for being our matchball sponsors
https://www.controlledaccess.uk/
and the Arthur Wharton Foundation for being our special sponsors:
https://arthurwhartonfoundation.org/