Redcar Town 5 Darlington Quaker Youth Under 13s 4

Darlington Youth sponsored by Darlington Building Society, The Flintlock Inn & BTS Fabrications, were the visitors to a sunny Redcar Town, a team sitting mid table in Division 2.

On a tight pitch Darlington started the brighter and within 6 minutes won a penalty from a push on Liam Wynn inside the box, the unselfish Wynn, decided to let Joe Hansen take the spot kick, however the chance to take the lead flew just over the bar, but Darlington didn't have too long to wait to get another opportunity, a free kick from the left side of the eighteen yard box, Jacob Gibson who was playing forward in a defensive midfield position was given the responsibility for taking the kick, and what a free kick it was, the ball flew over everyone into the keepers top left hand corner, a kick any premiership player (Payet) would have been proud of.

This stunned the home side into action and only a super nearside post save by the Darlington keeper Bradley Morrison, stopped Redcar equalising, the resulting corner however led to a controversial equaliser, the ball pinged around the box and was saved on the line by Morrison and eventually Jack Browning who fell onto the ball, Oliver Johnson who followed in to make the clearance was clearly pushed over the top of Browning by the Redcar forward and in doing so the Darlington midfielder rolled back and the ball with him into the net.1-1

The match was end to end with both sides having chances, the next goal fell to Darlington a superb corner from Wynn, with Alex Mason occupying the keeper, it gave Gibson the opportunity for an equally superb volley to see Darlington go into the lead again.

The equaliser from Redcar was a clinical strike from outside the box, the No.11 picked the ball up on the halfway line rode some weak challenges and struck the ball straight over the head of the Darlington keeper.

There were more goals in this game as both sides were very open in their play, once again it was Darlington who struck, a low drive from in form striker Wynn slid inside the post with the Redcar keeper motionless. With a few minutes left of the first half left, Redcar once again equalised. H.T 3-3

The second half started with Darlington making a substitution, Will Dixon on for Tristan Bowden Bloomfield, resulting in moving Gibson back to his normal centre half position and Browning back to defensive midfield.

Goal number 4 came midway through the second half, another excellent corner from Wynn, saw Oliver Johnson power a header into the Redcar net giving the keeper no chance.

At 3-4 and with 6 minutes remaining to play, the game should have been won, however an unrelenting Redcar Town continued to press for an equaliser, and sure enough the pressure paid off, a cross from the right saw the clearance rebound off a Redcar player into the back of Darlington's net. Two minutes remaining, a long forward ball from Redcar saw a collision between Kian Slater and Keeper Morrison only for the ball to run free to a grateful Redcar striker.

The final opportunity came from Thomas Hindmarch who picked the ball up in his own half and from 35 yards out struck a fantastic shot, which went over the keeper only to hit the Redcar Town crossbar. The game ended FT 5-4, Darlington's third and probably most costly defeat of the season in the league. MoM went to Jacob Gibson.