Here’s the first part of our youth team round up covering last weekend’s games

Spennymoor Town 3 Darlington Under 18s 2

Match Sponsor - Tyne Tees Crushing & Screening

After a disappointing and lack lustre performance Monday night it was important we put the mistakes right and put a much improved performance in Saturday and that is exactly what we did.

Spennymoor enjoyed spells of possession in the opening occasions but mainly in there own half and away from any danger to the darlington goal but after a scramble in the box from a corner and a momentary lack of concentration it allowed Spennymoor to grab the first goal and they very quickly doubled there lead after a well worked goal. After the result on Monday night the lads could of quite easily chucked in the towel but they didn't and very quickly got back into the game through Harry Gill.

Half Time 2-1

After the break Darlington did most of the pressing creating many chances especially from wide areas but after a long ball and some poor defending the Spennymoor striker made it 3-1.

Again questions were asked of the Darlington team and they very quickly answered them halving the deficit after a quality ball into the box, after the ball dropped Callum Coleman managed to squeeze it home. Several very good chances came and went in the final 20 minutes but we lacked that composure in front of goal to get the equaliser.

We didn't get the result we wanted but that wasn't through trying and with a few interesting referee decisions and a bit of luck which has so far eluded this team since game one we would have and should have got at least a point out of the game but that is football.

Man of the match - Callum Cole

Match report by Anthony Verity

Great win for Under 15s

Bishop Auckland Kings 1 Darlington Under 15 Quakers 6

We travelled in the county cup for a tricky fixture away to Bishop Auckland Kings. We started brightly pressing high up the pitch to set up an early goal through Nathan Walls. Oscar Taylor then had a great finish to make it two nil from which the lads took the foot off the gas and let the opposition back into the game conceding a sloppy goal to go in 2-1 up at half time.

The second half we played some of our best football so far this season and Kieron Greenway had two wonder strikes from 30 yds for two excellent goals. Oscar Taylor completed his hat trick with Nathan Walls bagging another for us to finish 6-1 and through into the next round.

Report by Stephen Luck

Keeper Ben scored twice for the Under 8s!

Darlington Under 8 Quakers v Stranton

Team to start

GOALKEEPER- BEN WILLAMS

DEFENDER- ZAC REEVE

LEFT WING - JACK PARRY

RIGHT WING - TRAVIS HARRISON

STRIKER- ALFIE GLANCEY

SUBS

MILLER SHIELD, APO BAKAN

The lads reacted from last week’s game with some hard training on Tuesday and Thursday.

Darlington started the game really well with a early goal from TRAVIS HARRISON who played really good down the wing.

JACK PARRY once again was really good scoring and assisting with some great tricks and turns.

Without BEN WILLAMS Darlington keeper the scoreline would have been in double figures with some brilliant saves to keep the score down he even chipped in with two goals with some great kicking out of his hands to reach the other team’s net.

ZAC REEVE was solid at the back, with some great tackles and decision making with and without the ball.

ALFIE GLANCEY the work horse up front didn’t score however he created a lot of chances for his team mates.

MILLER SHIELD was good on the wing with some great tricks and turns to help assist couple of the goals today.

APO BAKAN done some really good tackles to stop goals going in and even created some chances for the attackers.

MOM- BEN WILLAMS

Report by Brad Blythe

U12s win at home

Darlington FC Under 12s 5-3 Seaham Coast FC

Darlington started just like they did in their last match, very slowly but had near enough all of possession without creating anything substantial.

The lads were caught napping a couple of times and let the opposition get into the game. The game started a bit scrappy not many chances created until Darlington finally broke the deadlock, after a quick free kick on the half way line from Tyler Rowden, which found its way to the back post for Finlay Tulip to sidefoot in, 1-0. Darlington then started to get shots away to try and test the opposition keeper, who in response produced some great saves. Finlay got his 2nd of the game just before half time, as a great diagonal pass from defender James Preston, was left by Preston Gredziak, it then ran to Finlay at the back post again who neatly put into the far corner.

HT 2-0

Darlington started the 2nd half a lot brighter and after making 5 subs introducing: Caden Beckett, Kit Hodgson, Jay Haxell, Alex Walton & Jack Denham, they soon scored through Charlie Drury to get his 3rd of the season. Some scrappy football on the left led to him getting the ball and taking on Seaham players and then scoring at the near post via the post.

One of the subs got the next goal, Caden Beckett, using his quick reactions to get on the end of a good save by the keeper, from a Kit Hodgson shot, and Caden tapped in at the second attempt to make it 4-0. Seaham got one back after some sloppy defending from Darlington left a Seaham striker unmarked on the edge of the box to put into the far right corner. Darlington pulled another goal ahead after a great goal by Tyler Rowden after a corner was cleared straight to Tyler’s feet who took a touch out and drilled the ball into the top left corner, there was no chance the keeper was pulling off a great save that time.

Before full time Seaham pulled another 2 goals back but couldn't pull off the miracle comeback they so hoped for.

FT 5-3

It wasn't the performance we had hoped for but it is still a working progress as we are still a brand new team but we got the 3 points in the end.

MOTM: Tyler Rowden

Match report by Jonny Kane

Under 13s narrowly beaten

Darlington Under 13s 1 Billingham Juniors 2

This was the battle of the two promoted teams from last year and it didn't disappoint in a real good competitive game !!

Billingham were stopped in their normal routine of going through there giant striker as Darlo's defence of Dybell, Rocker, Campbell and Davidson never got caught once especially with Dybell’s great man to man marking of him and this allowed Darlo to pick up slot of loose balls in midfield with Jojo Moncur and Watt getting on the ball with again the energy of Walters causing problems and also when looking to attack Keating and Sams trying to get beyond their defence but after 20 mins of battling a long throw landed at a forward’s feet and Bllingham took the lead. Darlo kept their heads and pushed hard with great effort from all the boys and Fynn in goal organising well!! With the last kick of the first half a free kick from 30yrds out was driven into the top corner of the net by Callum Moncur for a good and deserved equaliser by 1-1.

The second half was the same a very even contest with Darlo bringing on Gibson Harris Dixon Luck and Alex who all played there part and give Darlo fresh lively options in the sec half

With Darlo now pressing and on top a kind bounce saw for the first time in the game the tall Billingham striker break away and race into the box and score to make it 2-1

Darlo then for the 20 mins were excellent and pressed and pressed for a very deserved equaliser and Jojo, Harry, Will and Jojo again were stopped by blocked challenges and a great save and the lads were gutted at the end to be beaten 2-1 but they couldn't have tried any harder than they did👍

Mom was Nathan Dybell followed closely by Benjamine Rodker who were both outstanding in the Darlo defence 👍