Curtis Edwards put in a man of the match performance for Darlington as they sailed to a comfortable win in difficult conditions.
Both teams lined up as follows:
Cammell Laird: Atherton, Lundon, Dysart, Hollett, Ferrigan, O'Brien, Couch, Foley, Henders, Young, Woods
Darlington: Jameson, J.Robinson, Hunter, White, Galbraith, Thomas, Thompson, Edwards, Scott, Dowson, Fisher
After Wednesday nights DCC tie at home to Sunderland RCA, in which a significantly weaker side was fielded, understandably there were more than a fare few changes to the Starting line up. Hunter, White, Thompson, Edwards, Scott & Dowson were all reinstalled, as well as new signing Nathan Fisher who was making his league debut for the club.
With the rain lashing down and a strong wind blowing over Cammell Lairds Kirklands stadium, from the get go it was plain to see that the weather was having an effect on the game, with several crosses and passes either being misplaced or going harmlessly out of play.
Due to the weather playing it's part on the game, it wasn't until the 15th minute for the first real chance of the game to materialise. Some good link up play involving Dowson and Fisher, led to Thomas hitting a shot across the floor which just missed finding the net by centimetres. After this Darlo managed to get a few more efforts in on goal, firstly Edwards heading just wide of the goal and then Fisher had a shot that went wide of the oppositions goal.
Darlington's best chance of the half fell to Steven Thompson in the 40th minute, after some great passing between him and Dowson, the ball fell to Thompson who, one on one with the keeper, somehow managed to hit his shot just wide of the goal. So bad was the miss that a few Darlington fans were still cheering thinking it was a goal, seconds after the shot went out of play.
Cammell Laird had rarely threatened Darlington's goal in the first half, leaving Jameson in the net with little to do.
Both teams went into halftime at 0-0, Darlo having the much better chances and creating some really good passing moves. In my opinion, after the way the first half had panned out, Darlo really should of been leading the match already.
Into the second half and both teams were unchanged, thankfully the conditions had also improved during the interval.
First chance of the 2nd half fell to the hosts, no doubt after receiving a rollicking from the their manager, they managed to create an effort that harmlessly went over the bar, that was on 50 minutes and just 3 minutes later the first goal of the game arrived!
A cross into the box from the left by Galbraith was surely about to be headed into the net by Fisher, however for some reason Atherton in the Cammell Laird goal went to save it with his feet, a move that he soon regretted with the cross nestling into the bottom of the goal, 1-0 to the Quakers! Although it is still disputed who's goal it actually was, with Fisher clearly claiming it with his celebrations.
However in the 68th minute Fisher nearly claimed what would of certainly been his goal, only for the ball to be cleared off the line by Dysart.
Cammell Laird were creating chances but really only one actually threatened the goal. A un-marked Laird player managed to head the ball down low and it did have Jameson scrambling for a minute, however he made the save look easy, no problem!
The Quakers dominated the second half and eventually managed to finish the game off in stoppage time. A clumsy challenge on Thompson in the box left Galbraith with the simple task of putting the ball into the back of the net, which he did albeit for after a good hand from Atherton, but the ball found the side of the goal.
2-0 to the visitors, game over!
Man of the match for me goes to young Curtis Edwards. Although all round it was a brilliant team performance, the youngster put in a confident performance after a difficult week. Breaking up plays and starting off some really good attacks, top effort!
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