Greatham Under 13s 3 Darlington Quaker Under 13s 6

Darlington Youth sponsored by Darlington Building Society, The Flintlock Inn & BTS Fabrications, were the visitors to Greatham FC near Hartlepool.

Darlington on the hunt for promotion to TJFA division one went into this match knowing a win would keep there promotion push on target. On a cold and windy day with the rain coming in horizontal at times this certainly was a game of two halves with the conditions playing a part.

The visitors started well, knocking the ball around and keeping Greatham penned in their own half for the first 10 minutes, but a few shots wide of the opposition goal from Wynn, Moody and Johnson, meant the visitors couldn't make the early pressure pay. The home side began to get into the game and a couple of passes through the heart of the Darlington defence showed signs of how Greatham were going to approach this game.

The breakthrough came the way of the home side, a ball through the middle with the defence chasing and a hesitant keeper in Bradley Morrison seen the lone striker blast the ball into the net.1-0 The match progressed with Darlington having a lot of the ball but only able to breach the Greatham defence on a couple of occasions but some good shot stopping by the home keeper and the bar denied Darlington an equaliser.

The next goal also went Greatham's way, an approach down the right with a loose ball being chased down by Morrison who got to the ball first, the clearance fell into the path of Greatham player and with the Goal empty a strike on target meant Darlington were 2-0 down, a familiar story these days,give the opposition a head start and then lets play catch up!

Darlington pulled one back before half time, a ball across from Wynn, fell to the feet of Moody who sweetly stroked the ball past a static keeper, 2-1, game on, the first half finished with what looked like a clear cut penalty claim, Wynn taking on the home defence found himself in the box only to be brought down, however the official claimed a clean tackle, play on!

The half time break was a chance to get the boys focused on the task, and a free kick soon after the restart brought the scores level, a great Jacob Gibson free kick 15 yards from half way line saw the wind assisted kick deceive everyone, including the keeper.2-2

The home side weren't finished yet and a failure to clear a loose ball saw Greatham strike and move into the lead again 3-2, 15 mins to go and the boys moved up a gear, a corner to Darlo, Wynn's in sweeping cross fell kindly to Oliver Johnson who steadied himself and swept the ball past a crowded Greatham goal 3-3, Goal of the game came from Tom Hindmarch who collected the ball just outside the opposition box, moved himself left, lined up the goal and struck top left hand corner, 3-4.

From here on in it was one way with Darlington embedded in the Greatham half, and passing the ball around well, goal number 5 for Darlo was again well devised, Tristan Bowden Bloomfield playing down the left knocked the ball into the box, Wynn went for the header, however the ball dropped to Johnson who got his second and Darlington's fifth. 3-5.

Darlington were not finished and to cap the comeback Liam Wynn kept up his scoring run with a shot from outside the box which squirmed along the floor and through the keepers legs.

All in all a great comeback once again, great character from the team and good work rate from Browning and Mason, but come on lads, lets try for a clean sheet in our final game Tuesday v Trimdon and gain that promotion!

MoM: Matthew Moody