Darlington Women started their league campaign with a win when they defeated Gateshead Leam Lane 4-2 at Eastbourne on Sunday.

Goals from Aimee Dagnall, Hattie Raine (2) and Chloe Ryan gave Quakers victory and three points for their promotion campaign.

Manager Shaun MacKenzie said; “It’s always good to start the league campaign with a win and I was pleased with today’s performance. We started well in both halves with a good tempo and those first 20 minutes in both halves have ultimately won us the game.

“We created plenty of chances and took all four of our goals well, I was also pleased with how we defended and kept our shape. Everyone worked hard from the off and the subs came on and done their job to see the game out. A really good win to kick start our league season, before a big game away at Birtley Town Ladies next week.

“We will look to take the positives into next week and keep the momentum going.”

Here’s the match report from Chris Barrett:

Darlington came out with purpose looking to start on the front foot as they did in their previous game in the FA Cup vs GT7 and got a chance after 8 minutes with Hattie Raine driving in a low shot which was turned away by the keeper and the follow up effort from Katie Bragg was well saved. 

Darlington were awarded a free kick a few yards into the Leam half and the ball was driven in to the centre of the box by Raine close to the penalty spot for Aimee Dagnall to ghost in and nod the ball beyond the keeper into the side netting and give Darlington the 1-0 lead.

It was less than a minute later when Hattie Raine swooped in on a loose pass to pick up the ball well outside the box and unleashed a fantastic strike from distance over the keeper and in off the post to double the lead for Darlington.

From this point Leam reacted and came more into the game and a free kick from Evie Whitaker was well held. On 24 minutes a defensive lapse allowed Leam to break through the middle but the shot was well saved and held by Whitaker. Darlington were still creating good chances and came close with efforts from Sara Ellis and Katie Bragg. 

Just before the end of the first half, a corner from Leam was not dealt with and a lack of authority allowed Leam to sneak in and head the ball in to get a goal back right before half time to make it 2-1.

Darlington came out strong in the second half and came close through Raine twice with a good strike coming back out off the post and Ellis putting Raine through one v one but it was an excellent save from the Leam goalkeeper. 

Darlington still had to be aware of the Leam attacking threat and it took a great recovery tackle from Lucy Hart in order to deny Leam another clear effort on goal. On 57 minutes Darlington extended their lead with great work from Dagnall who played a fabulous ball through to Raine who won the race to the ball and poked it past the keeper and smashed it in for another goal and her second of the game.

On the hour mark Chloe Ryan won the ball on the left hand side and managed to drive past the defender and cooly placed the ball past the keeper to make it four for Darlington giving them a comfortable lead at 4-1.

Darlington didn’t make it easy for themselves by giving away a penalty for a strong challenge in the box but got lucky when the resulting penalty was blasted over the bar.  It took another good save from Whitaker again when the defence split to allow the attacker space for a one on one but Whitaker stood strong and also managed to claim the follow up ball. 

On 85 minutes the Leam attack was in again finding more space in the middle and this time the ball was slipped in to the goal to bring the game back to 4-2.

Darlington continued to work hard and managed to see out the game.

There were a number of strong performances in the team with great goals from Raine and Ryan but player of the match was for a colossal performance in the middle of the park from Aimee Dagnall who dominated the key areas and was a key contributor to a number of goals.