'We allowed Matt Rhead to dictate to us how he wanted to play'

The Tin Shed in full voice was a welcome spectacle, the fans relishing being back at Blackwell Meadows as friends met once again and got back into the matchday routine.

It had been 532 days since Darlington had last staged a game in front of supporters, and an encouraging 1,760 were in attendance.

Afterall, absence makes the heart grow fonder, so they say. After this alarming showing, however, the accuracy of that phrase will be tested.

Because, while we can also take solace in Darlington showing some spirit in the second half to claw back two goals, the 3-2 scoreline suggests a close contest when Quakers were firmly second best and familiar frailties came to the fore.

While the personnel may have changed, the deficiencies that have cost Darlington in recent seasons remain.

Six months since the final game of last season and, to be blunt, they still need a nasty so and so at the back.

Alun Armstrong has desperately tried and failed to strengthen this area of the team. Gary Brown, now with West Auckland, was at Blackwell on Saturday for Darlo Fans Radio and Quakers could do worse than asking him to bring his boots next time.

At one stage Alfreton could have been four or five goals clear, yet in open play were an ordinary side that had lost each of their first two matches without scoring.

But throughout the first half looked like scoring at each of their numerous corners, free-kicks and throws, all hurled at a cluster of bodies in Darlington’s penalty area.

Route-one is how Billy Heath sets up his teams, battering ram forward Matt Rhead the perfect target man, yet Darlington’s meek defence could not handle him nor the tactics.

“We allowed Matt Rhead to dictate to us how he wanted to play,” admitted Armstrong.

“It’s alright working on it before the game, but we haven’t got a Matt Rhead in our team to play against him.

“We knew exactly how Alfreton were going to play, they have the long throws and the free-kicks into the box, but it boils down to basics.

“We tell them week in, week out in training. Set-plays, if you don’t win the first ball then win the second, but we just switched off.

“Do the basics right and we win that game.

“When we conceded the first goal I could see a few of them pack in and that’s why we had a go at them at half-time.

“To be fair, they picked themselves up and had a go in that second half.”

By half-time the contest was essentially over as it was 2-0, Darlington having failed to threaten to score and were fortunate not to trail by a greater margin.

Adam Lund stabbed home to make it 1-0 at close-range midway through the opening 45 after an Alfreton free-kick on the right was hoisted in and played back across by Tom Allan.

It was 2-0 after a long throw, Allan rising highest to beat Tommy Taylor, leading to inquests on the sun-soaked terraces during half-time.

The glorious weather was enjoyable for most, the football certainly wasn’t.

Words were exchanged in the Darlington changing room too, but it was almost 3-0 seconds after the restart when Dayle Southwell thundered a shot against the bar.

The third came on 51 minutes when Allan ran onto a Rhead flick and finished low, and it was almost 4-0 but Rhead missed an opportunity when winning his umpteenth header of the day.

The 37-year-old had a field day against Darlington’s youthful defence. Brandon Taylor and Alex Storey, both 22, were studying for their GCSEs when Rhead was giving Football League defences a hard time when playing for Mansfield Town and Lincoln City.

It was a baptism of fire for Taylor, one of six debutants in Darlington’s starting XI, and criticism could be tempered by pointing out this is a new-look team that needs time.

It is also true that Covid has impacted Quakers this summer, friendlies being cancelled which affected fitness.

Jarrett Rivers was unable to start on Saturday as he has only recently recovered from Covid, but made an impact as a sub and is sure to start away to Curzon Ashton. Fellow subs Alex Purver and Kallum Griffiths proved their worth too.

Armstrong did not want to make excuses, however, adding: “We’ve had two training sessions in two and a half weeks. On Tuesday I could see they were a little bit short of fitness, but that doesn’t excuse you for the basics.

“You can miss all the training you like, the basics won’t change and that annoys me more than anything.”

Quakers could have caved in and lost by five or six, but captain Will Hatfield led a fightback.

After Kevin Dos Santos showed determination to make something happen, Hatfield showed desire to seize on a loose ball inside the Alfreton penalty area and rammed home on the hour for 3-1.

And after Dos Santos was tripped, captain marvel smashed home a penalty with five minutes to go; the damage having long since been done.