Darlington Women produced the perfect response from their FA Cup exit by thumping third placed Birtley 9-0 in the Durham County Women's League on Sunday afternoon.

The result means that they're still unbeaten in six league games this season, and are closing the gap on the leading clubs, with games in hand.

Sophie Curle was in great form scoring four, to give her twelve in six league games this season, while all the other forwards chipped in.

Manager Shaun MacKenzie said; “It was great to bounce back from the defeat at Farsley last week, and I was really, really pleased with the reaction.

“I told the players before the start that if we won this game, then it would send a statement to the rest of the league, and that’s what we’ve done.

“I was pleased that several players got on the scoresheet, and that we kept a clean sheet.”

Here’s the match report from Chris Barrett:

Darlington returned to league action against a good Birtley side who sit 3rd in the league table. Darlington were again missing a couple of key players and took a squad of 13 away to tough conditions in Sunderland.

In contrast to their last game, Darlington started strong and were quick out of the blocks, after 11 minutes they were ahead when Emma Carter played a ball down the left through to Sophie Curle who made a great run through the defenders and put the ball across the goal into the net to go ahead and give Darlington the lead.

Only three minutes later, Darlington got another when Curle turned provider, playing the ball down the left again, this time to Emma Doudican who set herself and again fired across the goal, this time into the top corner to double the lead.

It took until the 16th minute before Birtley’s first attack as the ball was played through a gap in the defence but Alice Wearmouth managed to recover and win the ball back with a good timed tackle. After 24 minutes, Darlington got another, as the ball was played through by Hattie Raine to Curle who calmly finished for her second goal of the game.

Darlington got another when Curle set yet another goal up, as she played the ball from the left hand side across the box to Toni Upton for a sliding finish. Only a minute later, Darlington got their fifth when Upton played the ball to Aimee Dagnall who after some battling in the middle, found some space to strike from 25 yards into the top right hand corner and put Darlington into an unassailable lead at the half time break.

In the second half, Darlington didn’t relent but it took until the hour mark to get the next goal when Dagnall got the ball on the right hand side and whipped it across, the ball evading everyone until it got to Emma Doudican who put the ball in at the back post for her second of the game. Two minutes later, Darlington got another goal, when this time a ball was put in from Curle on the right hand side unselfishly for Raine to finish well and smash the ball into the net and put Darlington up by 7.

On the 80th minute mark, Darlington got another when Dagnall played a long ball through the middle for Sophie Curle to latch on to and finish for her hat trick. The Quaker women finished the scoring on 88 minutes when Raine received the ball on the right and floated the ball in the middle to Curle who took the ball down to finish for nine. That’s now 12 league goals in as half as many games for Darlington’s number 15. 

The team stood strong and looked assured in maintaining a clean sheet and the flurry of goals will be uplifting after the disappointment on last week’s FA Cup exit. The team should get a boost from this result and will look to carry on this form for the rest of the season.

Player of the match: Alice Wearmouth

STARTING XI

Atkinson, Garnett, Wearmouth, Peart, Carter, Upton, Dagnall, Whitworth, Doudican, Raine, Curle 

Subs: Padurariu, Frew

Subs used: 

Padurariu for Doudican 

Frew for Peart 

Full time result: 

Birtley Town Ladies 0-9 Darlington FC Women

Goalscorers 

1-0 Darlington - Curle 11’

2-0 Darlington - Doudican 14’

3-0 Darlington - Curle 24’

4-0 Darlington - Upton 36’

5-0 Darlington - Dagnall 37’

Half time 5-0 

6-0 Darlington - Doudican 62’

7-0 Darlington - Raine 63’

8-0 Darlington - Curle 80’

9-0 Darlington - Curle 88’

We’d like to thank the following kit sponsors:

Hattie Raine (sponsored by Krystal Sells), Emma Carter (The Cheese and Wine Shop), Emma Doudican (Winroths Hairdressers), Sarah Frew (Chic Beauty Academy), Martina Cuccunato (Premier 1 Filtration), Caisey Lee (Engage to Learn), Olivia Whitworth (Terry Farley MBE), Sophie Curle (Franks Carpets), Natalie Peart (RA Dalton Ltd), Toni Upton (Dawn Fire Safety), Alice Wearmouth (Direct Flooring), Chloe Bright (Jordan Hanratty Personal Training),  Chloe Tinkler (Glen and Mary Bowes), Millie Garnett (eco Hair Salon), Aimee Dagnall (Andrew Scullion), Gabrielle Padurianu (John Vickerman)