Quakers frustrated as winning run comes to an end

WHILE their winning run was due to end sooner or later, Saturday’s circumstances made it tough to take for Darlington having come so close to making it a perfect ten.

Beyond the 90-minute mark at home to mid-table ten-man Clitheroe, Quakers were heading for a tenth successive league win and an eighth clean sheet in that time.

Then up popped Sefton Gonzales to ruin Darlington’s weekend.

His 91st minute equaliser silenced Heritage Park and snatched a deserved point for the Lancashire side, who caught Quakers on an off day and took advantage.

They were, though, fortunate referee Lindsey Robinson opted against awarding Darlington a penalty after Gonzales’ goal.

She correctly sent off Clitheroe’s Daniel Wilkins for using an arm to deck Ian Watson and generally made the right calls, but at the death she awarded a corner to Quakers despite Stephen Thompson being felled by player-manager Simon Garner.

“The decision in injury time, I can’t see what the referee has seen,” said Martin Gray, Darlington’s dumbfounded manager. “It was a straightforward penalty, no contact on the ball was made, but she gave a corner.

“You could see their player’s reaction, he put his hands on his head.”

Gray was not attempting to deflect attention from a disappointing display, explaining: “I’m not blaming the referee here, I’m just being honest about a decision that she got wrong.

“To miss something so simple – it wasn’t a tough one, it wasn’t a shoulder-barge, Thompson was cleanly taken out, quite simple.”

What perhaps made Gray all the more frustrated, however, was that his team, not for the first time this season, could blame only themselves for throwing away victory.

In September Darlington lost at Droylsden having been 1-0 up against ten men, and then drew with Farsley despite leading 1-0 going into injury time.

Gray admitted: “We had the ball in the corner about 30 or 40 second beforehand and tried to cross it when trying to get a second goal. Sometimes you need to manage the game better, be cleverer.

“The ball went from their final third to our final third. It was a scrappy goal, a couple of deflections, sometimes it happens. But that doesn’t make it any less disappointing because that’s three points we should’ve got.”

His team had chances to take the lead inside a first half that saw Graeme Armstrong hit the crossbar when chipping the keeper and also volley over the crossbar.

The game was too open though, Clitheroe getting a lot of joy attacking down Darlington’s right where Josh Nearney made his debut after join on loan from Hartlepool United.

Gray replaced him at half-time, due to a muscle tightness said the manager, but not before he had almost scored an own goal when a sliding tackle saw the ball roll against the post during a good spell for the visitors.

Quakers keeper Peter Jameson saved with his legs to deny Jason Hart, and then the Clitheroe striker also hit the post with a well-hit curling effort at the start of the second half.

Terry Galbraith came on for Nearney, a move which saw Adam Mitchell drop to right-back, and the two combined for Darlington’s goal just after the hour.

A well-worked corner routine saw Mitchell send the ball to the far post for Galbraith to head home his sixth goal of the campaign.

Although it was a tight affair, the longer the game went on, the more likely Darlington looked to have the points, even though sub David Dowson missed an opportunity to made it 2-0 when one-on-one.

Wilkins’ dismissal with ten minutes to go appeared to seal Clitheroe’s fate, but

Garner’s side, much-improved on the team beaten 6-0 at Heritage Park in January, kept going and after an attack down Darlington’s left a deflected cross fell for Gonzales to tap home.

“They were a well-organised team, but it’s still disappointing to drop two points when you’ve been well in control against ten men,” admitted Gray.

“It wasn’t one of our better performances of the last ten games. Sooner or later we were going to concede a goal, but we’ve conceded only ten goals this season and we have defended well as a team. Let’s be positive about it.”

Nine successive league wins remains a fine feat. Seven was the most Curzon Ashton managed last season when they romped to the title.

Gray added: “We’re still top, which is where we aim to be. We’ve put ourselves in a great position over the last few weeks. That’s 28 points from 30, so we’ve done very well.

“It adds another game to the unbeaten run, but it feels like a defeat when you’ve conceded to a team that were down to ten men.”

Match Facts

Goals: Galbraith (63, 1-0); Gonzales (90, 1-1)

Bookings: Garner (66, foul), Lynch (80, dissent); Thompson (82, time wasting)

Sending-off: Wilkins (80, violent conduct)

Referee: Lindsey Robinson 6

Attendance: 1,023

Entertainment: 3/5

Darlington (4-4-2): Jameson 7; Nearney 6 (Galbraith 46, 7), Brown 7, Hunter 7, WATSON 7; A Mitchell 7, Scott 6, Portas 6, Thompson 6; Purewal 7, Armstrong 7 (Dowson 59, 6). Subs (not used): Bell (gk), Young, Cocks

Clitheroe (4-4-2): Dawber 7; Morton 6, Bonaminio 7, Esdaille 6, Walker 7; Wilkins 7, Garner 6, Lynch 7, Burns 6 (Dent 85); Gonzales 7, Hart 7. Subs (not used): Palffy, Bamba, Ralph, Mercer

Man of the match

IAN Watson – Became an auxiliary winger by regularly getting forward