Wolviston 1 Darlington Reserves 3

Darlington Reserves continued their steady climb away from wrong end of the table with an excellent 3-1 away win at second bottom Wolviston on Saturday.

The Reserves are now fourth bottom, eight points clear of second bottom Wolviston, and five points ahead of third bottom Windscale. Even though they’re 17th, they’re only four points below ninth spot, which has become a realistic target.

Joint manager Mark Fanning said; “It was another good performance, even though we had a makeshift back four, and we had to make a late goalkeeping change.

“We started really well and led with two goals by Nathan Stephenson, and after they pulled a goal back, we won the points with a terrific goal by Danny Wheeler.

“It was a really good win, and we have to keep it going now.”

There were also debut appearances for teenage right back Joe Marlow, and Darlo favourite Steve Johnson.

[caption id="attachment_28018" align="alignnone" width="300"] Steve Johnson[/caption]

Stephenson put Quakers into the lead on 9 minutes when he pounced on a bad mistake in the Wolviston defence and scored easily, then a mistake by Wolviston keeper Davidson allowed Stephenson to score his second.

[caption id="attachment_28017" align="alignnone" width="300"] Nathan Stephenson[/caption]

Wolviston striker Junior Masandi pulled a goal back, and just on half time Stephenson was denied his hat trick by a superb save by Davidson.

Second half Quakers were on top again, and they made sure of the points with a top quality goal by Dan Wheeler, who cleverly beat two defenders and fired powerfully left footed into the top corner. (The match report on the Wolviston website sportingly says that Dan’s effort was “an absolutely belter of a goal the like of which you would not witness at any level of football”)

League table: http://www.wearside-football-league.org.uk/leagueTables/

The reserves’ next game is at home to Coxhoe Athletic on Saturday afternoon, kick off 2pm, at Eastbourne. The first team don’t play until the following day against Marine in the FA Buildbase Trophy, so there’s a great opportunity to see two Darlo teams in action over the weekend.