Darlington Women came back from two goals down to draw with unbeaten league leaders Leam Rangers on Sunday.

They trailed 2-0 at half time, but goals from Lily Wilkinson and Chloe Bright earned them a point in a stirring second half.

Manager Shau MacKenzie said; “It was a performance to be proud of today. Despite conceding so early, I thought we reacted well and really took the game to the league leaders. I thought we were unlucky in the first half not to get the breakthrough. Then to concede again so close to half-time is the worst time to concede a goal.

“However we showed plenty of character and desire to get back in that game. I felt we were the better team for much of that first half and I reiterated that we should be confident going into the second. We knew we needed to score three to win the game and so we needed to attack with intent and get bodies forward. We did exactly that and I thought we thoroughly deserved at least a point, if not all three. The girls worked really hard in that second half and grafted right till the final whistle.

“You don’t sit top of the league and unbeaten if you’re not a good team and we more than matched a very good Leam side today and showed that on our day, we can compete with anyone in this league. We have started to build some consistency in recent weeks and we are now unbeaten in the league since our loss to Durham Cestria in January. We’ve just got to keep the momentum going and carry on picking up points till the end of the season, to see if we can do enough to finish as high as we possibly can.”

The Quaker Women found themselves 1-0 down from virtually the kick off, 18 seconds on the clock when the Leam forward put the ball in the net. Not the ideal start for Darlington and they gave themselves an uphill task from there. They did react to going behind well and were on top for the next 10 minutes or so. It was a good first half of football from both teams and both sides created some good chances. Just before the half time, Darlington conceded a second goal and went in at the break 2-0 down. Quite possibly undeserved after an even first half. 

Darlington were fast out the blocks in the second half and really took the game to Leam. It didn’t take them long to get back into the game and they had one back in the 48th minute. Some good passing play and a great cross from Nicole Graham, met by the head of Lily Wilkinson to score her 13th goal of the season. 

Darlo continued to pile on the pressure and were rewarded with an equaliser on 65 minutes. Some good play on the left hand side from Grace Dobson, found Lily Wilkinson in the middle, who swivelled and switched play to the oncoming Chloe Bright, who hit it first time in the bottom corner for her 9th goal of the season. 

The rest of the game was hectic with both goalkeepers making great saves. One from the Leam keeper to deny Hattie Raine and an excellent save from Beatrice Whitley to keep the scores level. Leam came back into the game more in the last 10 minutes and it was end to end with both teams searching for a winner. Both teams also had penalty appeals waved away by the referee and nothing could separate the two sides. A game of two halves with Leam taking their chances in the first half and Darlo doing the same in the second. 

Player of the match was chosen by our match sponsor, The Darl Knight and they awarded it to our number 7, Chloe Bright. She worked tirelessly for the 90 minutes, with her defensive work and going forwards as well as scoring the equaliser to earn Darlington a point. 

Thanks for all your support today. Another good crowd and we appreciate every single one of you. We are away to Spennymoor Town Reserves next Sunday.

Here's the league table

https://fulltime.thefa.com/index.html?selectedSeason=65571865&selectedFixtureGroupAgeGroup=1&selectedDivision=371387182&selectedCompetition=0

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