Darlington Wearside Youths under 13s 4 Harton Bulldogs Under 13s 0

For this top of the table clash the Darlington Youth team paid no notice to the Bulldogs reputation (played 11 won 10) and went straight out for the attack. With the ever steady back three of Lucas Reed, Keiran Devlin and Thomas Nesbiatt and Dominic Agnew just in front of the back three.

The all out attack again paid dividends on 3 minutes when Darlington’s Ryan Smithwhite had a shot parried by the goal keeper for a corner kick and the resulting corner taken by Lucas Reed saw Jamie Dodds bury the ball into the Bulldogs net for the first goal of the game.

Darlington Wearside Youths U13 1 – Harton Bulldogs U13 0.

Darlington continued their game plan from the re-start, they were quick to the tackle, hassled continuously and gave the Bulldogs team no time to settle on the ball and it was not until the 13^th minute that the Bulldogs actually mounted an attack. However, this showed the Darlington team that the Bulldogs were ‘still in the game’.

For all the Darlington ‘dominance’ the Bulldogs defended well, getting players behind the ball and the Bulldogs keeper did them proud. The Darlington forwards and mid field however kept plugging away. On 24 minutes the Bulldogs did get a rare break with a lofted shot up the field which was chased by four Bulldogs players and for the only time in the match they were a bit quicker off the mark and got past the Darlington defence. The Darlington keeper Alex Bates found himself one on one with the Bulldogs forward. Bates closed down the ball on the edge of his box and made himself ‘big’ in front of the ball. The Bulldogs forward struck the ball well but Bates tactics paid off as the ball struck his upper body, only to re-bound to another Bulldogs attacker. Bates picked himself up off the ground and again made himself ‘big’ in front of that attacker. Again the Bulldogs had another shot which re-bounded off Bates upper thigh, again to a Bulldogs player. However this player passed the ball forward to another attacker who put the ball into the open goal, only for the referee to declare a no goal for off-side.

This attack seemed to give the Bulldogs team some new confidence and they started to have a bit more bite into their tackling and overall game. This however only spurred the Darlington team to ‘up their game’ and on 30 minutes Darlington’s Finn Illingworth squared to Jaxon Briggs who unleased another powerful shot which beat the Bulldogs keeper but re-bounded off the cross bar.

To counter the new found efforts of the Bulldogs Dominic Agnew dropped back to assist the Darlington defence.

On 34 minutes Jaxon Briggs again passed the ball to Daren Robertson who had a great shot which was intercepted by a Bulldogs defender and the ball ‘hung in the air’. Robertson duly watched the ball as it returned to the ground and produced a volley with the inside of his boot to put the Darlington team further ahead. This was the score at half time.

Darlington Wearside Youths U13 2 – Harton Bulldogs 0.

The second half saw the Darlington defence of Lucas Reed, Keiran Devlin and Jaxon Briggs.

The game started and continued in the second half with the Darlington team having the upper hand and producing the majority of the attacking play. However again the Bulldogs defence were giving a good account of themselves. They toe poked the ball, stuck the random leg/foot in front of the ball, produced some niggly tackles and were sharp to the defence, getting numbers around the Darlington attackers and generally clearing the ball from their box with kicks up the field to no one in particular.

On 46 minutes it was after one of these kicks up the field that the ball was collected by Darlington’s Ryan Smithwhite. Smithwhite passed the ball to Daren Robertson who used his upper body strength the hold off three Bulldogs players which allowed Keiran Devlin to get up to assist. Robertson passed the ball into the Bulldogs box off to Devlin who passed the ball to Finn Illingworth who picked his spot and from three yards he scored Darlington’s third goal.

Darlington Wearside youth U13 3 – Harton Bulldogs 0.

On 56 minutes Darlington were again awarded a free kick on the edge of the Bulldog’s box. The free kick was taken by Dominic Agnew who again rattled the Bulldogs bar. The rebounded ball fell to the feet of the bulldogs keeper who failed to clear the ball beyond Jaxon Briggs near the half way line. Briggs sent a lofty kick back into the Bulldogs box which was controlled by Daren Robertson who laid the ball off to Ryan Smithwhite who sent the ball into the net for Darlington’s fourth goal and the last goal of the match.

Final score Darlington Wearside Youths U13 4 – Harton Bulldogs 0.

This was by no means a walk over for the Darlington team, even the Darlington keeper Alex Bates had more to do than usual. On this showing the Harton Bulldogs must have the best defence in the league. The Darlington attack was relentless and even though the Bulldogs got numbers behind and around the ball they failed to contain the sheer body strength of Darlington’s Daren Robertson and Jaxon Briggs and the ball skills of the other Darlington forwards which proved to be the deciding factors in the result.

This result now puts the Darlington Wearside Youth U13 team to the top of the Russell Foster U13 (Sunday) Premier Division. Level on points with the Harton Bulldogs but with a goal difference of 57 to 37, with Darlington having two games in hand.