Simon Weatherill continues his Memory Match series with the 4-1 home win over Cardiff City on New Year’s Day 1991.

On New Year’s Day 1991, Darlington fans were hoping that the coming twelve months would be as exciting and as successful as the previous twelve months had been. Brian Little had led the club to the Conference title and back into the Football League at the first attempt, and with basically the same squad, he was now leading the Quakers on another promotion hunt in Division Four. As the New Year dawned, Darlington sat in fourth place in the table on 34 points, with 9 wins and 7 draws from their 20 games played so far.

Their opponents on New Years Day would be Cardiff City, making only their third ever appearance at Feethams for a league game. They’d visited twice in the 1980s, suffering a 4-1 defeat in a Division 3 game in October ‘85 and then escaping with a goalless draw in February ’88 in a drab Division 4 encounter. They’d warmed up for their trip to Feethams with two home victories over the festive period, 3-1 against Carlisle on Boxing Day and then 1-0 against Halifax three days later. The two wins moved City up into mid table, where they now sat only five points behind the Quakers and were hopeful that 1991 would see them push up the table towards the promotion places.

Darlington’s long trip to Aldershot on Boxing Day had been postponed due to a waterlogged pitch, so their only festive outing was a 1-1 draw at Scarborough on December 29th. Drew Coverdale had scored after only 31 seconds, but the Quakers had to settle for a point when the same player handled in the box and Boro equalised from the spot. Little kept the same starting eleven but made changes on the bench. Lee Ellison and Gary Coatsworth were both injured and unavailable, but Phil Linacre and David Corner were both back in contention after recovering from injuries. Also available again was Steve Mardenborough, who had missed the Scarborough game after injuring himself getting off the coach after the wasted trip to Aldershot!

A holiday crowd of 3151 braved the absolutely atrocious weather to watch the Cardiff game. Strong winds and heavy rain made for difficult playing conditions but the home side revelled in the Feethams mud, making light of the sticky pitch and starting the game with some enterprising football. They opened the scoring on 14 minutes when David Cork held the ball up well on the edge of the box before rolling it into the path of the onrushing Les McJannet. The full back ran on a couple of strides into the penalty area and thumped a low drive beyond Roger Hansbury’s despairing dive.

Cardiff hit back and Cohen Griffith hit a low shot that skidded off the wet turf, but Mark Prudhoe went full length to keep it out. It was to be Prudhoe’s only anxious moment of the half as the home side took complete control. Cork made it 2-0 in the 37th minute with a superb finish. Exchanging passes with John Borthwick down the left, Cork found himself on the corner of penalty area and cleverly chipped the ball across Hansbury into the far top corner of the net. It was 3-0 six minutes later as Prudhoe used the following wind to launch a prodigious goal kick deep into the Cardiff half, where it was misjudged by the visiting defenders and allowed to bounce into the penalty area, where it was met by Jimmy Willis, who stuck out a long leg to loop the ball over the stranded keeper. The Quakers, three goals to the good and with the game already won, left the pitch at half time to a rousing ovation. They should have made it four early in the second half when Cork and man of the match Borthwick both had close range shots kicked off the line.

Play briefly switched to the other end where Mark Taylor thought he’d pulled a goal back, but his shot was brilliantly steered around the post by Andy Toman with Prudhoe beaten. Darlington continued to hold the upper hand, despite playing into the wind and rain, and Gary Gill went close with a shot, when a square ball to Cork may have been the better option. The home side scored the fourth goal that their play deserved in the 64th minute after a foul on Toman. Coverdale’s inch perfect free kick was met by a thumping Willis header. Hansbury did well to keep that out but could only watch as Mick Tait hit the rebound into the empty net. Cardiff scored a consolation goal three minutes from time when Griffith, their best player, turned home a left wing cross from close range to deny Prudhoe a clean sheet.

The 4-1 win lifted the Quakers to third in the table and another solid home win, 3-1 against Carlisle, four days later took them to the top.

The programme for the 90/91 season consisted of 24 pages and cost 80p. The front cover featured action shots from the previous season’s championship clincher at Welling. Inside were all the usual match day articles – Manager’s Notes, two pages on the opposing team, Captain’s Corner, View from the Press Box, Yesteryear (with a previous game on this day in the past), kit sponsorship details, supporters’ club notes, previous encounters with today’s opponents, action photos, reserves and juniors news, Fourfax (with news of what was happening elsewhere in the division), match facts and figures and of course the team line-ups on the centre pages.

Team v Cardiff City : 1 Mark Prudhoe 2 Les McJannet 3 Frank Gray 4 Jimmy Willis 5 Kevan Smith 6 Drew Coverdale 7 Gary Gill 8 Andy Toman 9 John Borthwick 10 David Cork 11 Mick Tait Subs 12 Phil Linacre (replaced Cork, 83 mins) 14 Steve Mardenborough (replaced Gray, 79 minutes)