Darlington Youth Under 13 Quakers 8 Mount Pleasant Rangers 1

Darlington Youth sponsored by Darlington Building Society, The Flintlock Inn & BTS Fabrications, were looking to put in a much improved performance following last weekend’s defeat to local rivals 21^st AllStars.

Darlington were without Jacob Gibson (broken wrist) Tristan Bowden-Bloomfield was unavailable and with Carter Atkinson moving clubs, the young Quakers were low on numbers for their second local derby in as many weeks and this time Mount Pleasant Rangers stood in their way.

It was MPR who started the brightest and they went close to opening the scoring with only 7 minutes played. The Rangers forward picked up a loose ball 25 yards from goal and his dipping shot bounced off Bradley Morrison’s cross-bar before being cleared to safety.

This wakeup call was enough to spring the young Quakers into life, as the lads began to play some much quicker football with Tom Horner and Alex Masson pulling the strings in midfield.

Liam Wynn came close to giving Darlington the lead with 24 minutes played, he cut out a MPR goal kick, but his shot went inches wide of the Rangers post.

Darlington’s defence consisting of Joe Hanson, Josh Preshous, Kian Slater and Thomas Hindmarch were dealing well with any Rangers attacks and the young Quakers looked dangerous on the attack.

After drawing a blank last weekend, which was only his third time in 26 league and cup games for Darlington Youth, Corbyn Mitchell was back amongst the goals with 26 minutes played. Liam Wynn continued his great assists record with a neat ball into the path of Mitchell and he showed great composure before firing past the Rangers keeper from 12 yards.

Darlington continued to press and were rewarded for their hard work 6 minutes before the break. Rangers failed to clear Liam Wynn’s out swinging corner and Mitchell was on hand to smash in from close range.

With MPR struggling to cope with the pace Darlington possessed going forward, you could sense more goals would follow. The young Quakers capped off a good first half performance when Matty Moody caught Liam Wynn’s cross on the half volley and his shot from inside the area, cannoned off the cross-bar and into the back of the net to give them a 3-0 lead at the break.

HT 3-0 (35 Mins)

Darlington continued where they left off in the first half with the whole team working hard not to allow the Rangers players time on the ball. The work rate of Thomas Hindmarch and Joe Hanson was particularly impressive in the wide areas for Darlington, who were now in control of the game.

Alex Mason showed great vision to pick out Liam Wynn 25 yards from goal and he cut inside onto his favourite left foot before firing past the Rangers keeper for his 8^th goal of the season.

Matty Moody netted his second of the game in the 55^th minute when he tapped in at the back post following another Liam Wynn assist.

The Darlington defence was caught napping moments later, which saw the Rangers forward run through on goal unchallenged and he poked in to make it 5-1. This gave Rangers a massive lift and also gave a reminder to Darlington that the game was not over.

However with 10 minutes remaining Liam Wynn grabbed his fourth assist of the game and it was Corbyn Mitchell who headed in from five yards to net his hat-trick and put the result beyond any doubt.

Darlington finished the game strongly and managed to score a further two goals. First the Rangers keeper failed to keep out a fine Thomas Hindmarch strike and Mitchell rounded off a much improved performance following last week’s defeat with a fine run and finish to match.

FT 8-1 (70 Mins)

Man of the Match awarded by the Mount Pleasant Rangers manager was Joe Hanson. Well done Joe, great energy and another solid performance at right back.