Pools Youth 5 Darlington 3

A late fightback wasn’t enough for our women’s team to snatch a draw against Pools Youth on Sunday.

Goals from Hattie Raine (2) and Emma Carter – her first for the club – weren’t enough to snatch a point, and they were beaten 5-3.

Manager Shaun MacKenzie said; “It’s a tough one to take today, we could have and should have been ahead at the break. We created plenty of chances but wasted them and if you don’t put your chances away you get punished at any level. We then conceded some poor goals and a few individual errors cost us. We have got to eliminate that from our game and stay focused.

“However, when things don’t go your way, the players could have easily felt sorry for themselves but they didn’t and kept going right till the end. To pull three goals back shows that the players had the desire and put the graft in right till the final whistle. If there was another 10 minutes on the clock, I think we would have got something from the game.

“It’s not often you get to play a team two weeks in a row and put things right that went wrong the week before so we are looking forward to next week’s game at home and hopefully, we will have a few key players back in the squad for the return fixture. We need to get a win on board and get out of this poor run of form that we haven’t found ourselves in too often.”

Here’s the match report:

Darlington dominated the opening period of the game pressing the ball well and keeping the play high up the pitch. After 9 minutes a long goal kick dropped through the middle to a player who appeared to be well offside but no decision was given and the attacker raced through and slotted the ball in to give Pools the lead against the run of play. 

Darlington were undeterred and continued to put the pressure on with chances being created for Hattie Raine and Lily Wilkinson but although both came close, they couldn’t make the breakthrough. It was not long before the break when more good play from Darlington allowed the ball to be played into the box from the left to Katie Bragg to get the touch down to Wilkinson who poked the ball into the net but it was adjudged to be offside. 

After the break, Darlington started well but as has been seen in previous games they were caught out early on and after 48 minutes there was too much space allowed on the edge of the box for a strike at goal and the ball was just out of the keeper’s reach to double the lead.  Darlington were thankful to keeper Hannah Billingham who faced a number of efforts that were dealt with well especially on the 69th minute when the striker got into the box and turned and shot from six yards but it was bravely blocked by the young keeper.

On 78 minutes it was 3-0 to Pools when a free kick from the right was played deep to the back post where it was met and headed in. 

A minute later it was Billingham to the rescue again doing well to stop the ball from a one v one situation. A mad couple of minutes late on allowed Pools to add two more to their tally bringing it to five and killing the game. 

There was however a late resurgence from Darlington. On the 85th minute a great ball from Millie Soderman through the middle allowed Hattie Raine to sprint through and smartly finish in the bottom corner to get a goal back. On 88 minutes it was two when the ball was worked to the right for Chloe Bright who played the ball into the box for Emma Carter to run onto from left back and to nod the ball over the keeper. 

It was three just after the 90 minute mark when a free kick far out from Leanne Clennett was played into the box for Raine to latch on to and poke it home. 

Darlington were in the ascendancy but their time ran out and the game ended in a disappointing 5-3 loss. A loose couple of minutes really took the game away from Darlington but they will be buoyed by the strong finish to the game as the teams meet again next week in the return fixture. 

There were a number of strong performances within the team with players not having had minutes showing the strength in depth in the squad. Hattie Raine added two more to her tally of Darlington goals and Aimee Dagnall dominated the middle of the park in a deeper lying role but player of the match was awarded to Emma Carter for her industrious work up and down the left side and getting a rare goal to which she will be hoping to add to soon.

Emma in her 4th season with the team and has been with the club since the very start, at the age of 16. Now 19, Emma is currently top of the all-time appearance list with 85 competitive appearances. 

Despite being very close to scoring many times, Emma finally got her first competitive goal for the club today which epitomised her never give up attitude and 100% effort every game. 

Emma Carter is proudly sponsored by Direct Flooring and John Zissler Driving School. Thank you for your support this season.