Purewal's first 50 Darlington goals

2012-13
August 25: Consett (a), 3-0
1. The first of 50. On what was a rain-drenched day away to Consett, Amar’s first start for Darlington saw him get off the mark for Quakers. Twin brother Arjun had scored the first goal of Darlington’s Northern League season a week earlier in a 3-2 win over Bishop Auckland.

August 31: Dunston UTS (h), 4-0
2, 3. Six days later Friday night football arrived at Heritage Park and with it Purewal bagged a brace. Playing against a side that at the end of the previous season had won the FA Vase at Wembley and had been pipped to the league title by Spennymoor Town, Darlington won 4-0 with Purewal and Shaun Reay scoring two goals each.

September 8: Consett (h), 5-0
4. It took only 15 seconds of Purewal’s sixth appearance to score his fourth goal. Receiving a pass from David Dowson and bursting into the penalty area before sweeping past the Consett keeper, who was current Quakers first-choice Peter Jameson. It proved to be the first of a 5-0 rout at Heritage Park.

September 15: Billingham Town (h), 3-2
5. Purewal’s strike prove to be the winner against lowly Billingham Town, a team Quakers would go on to score seven against a few weeks later. This match proved to be the last time the Purewal twins played alongside each other, as Arjun was dropped and later joined Whitby Town.

September 26: Durham City (h), 3-1 
6. The only penalty among Purewal’s half century and it came against the club he had left to join Darlington the previous summer alongside Arjun. Others to have made the same move that summer were Stephen Harrison, Gary Brown and David Dowson, while after the season started Stephen Thompson followed suit.

September 29: Newcastle Benfield (h), 5-2
7, 8. The third Heritage Park game in a row in which Purewal netted, scoring twice in a 5-2 win over Newcastle Benfield on a Saturday when Darlington should have added more to their tally.

October 13: Ashington (h), 6-1
9. One of the Darlington’s highest attendances, 1,498, of the season were present for a 6-1 win in which Purewal netted his ninth goal.

November 3: Whitley Bay (h), 3-1
10. Goal number ten came in a 3-1 home win over Whitley Bay in what was Purewal’s 18th appearance, the first two being as a substitute.

November 21: Billingham Synthonia (h), 4-1
11. A second 4-1 win over Billingham Synthonia in as many months, this one seeing Craig Gott make his Darlington debut. Purewal contributed another goal as the team maintained their 100 per cent record at Heritage Park, 12 leagues wins from 12.

December 8: Newton Aycliffe (a), 1-2
12. Another goal for Purewal, a 33rd minute header, his 12th of the season, to level the scores, but Danny Earl’s double for Aycliffe meant Darlington had lost back-to-back league matches for the first time.

December 15: Durham City (a), 4-0
13, 14. Having scored a penalty in the home match against his former club, Purewal added two more to his tally on the artificial surface at Durham City. The 4-0 win was significant as it came on the back of two defeats, after which Martin Gray had bolstered his squad by bringing in goalkeeper Mark Bell and midfielder Jonny Davis soon followed.

January 5: South Shields (a), 3-0
15. His run of starting 23 consecutive league matches came to an end on Boxing Day when Purewal was rested, playing as a substitute but unable to find the net in a 4-2 win at Norton & Stockton Ancients. He returned in the next match, however, adding the second goal during a 3-0 win on a gluepot pitch at South Shields. He now had 15 goals in 27 games.

February 9: Hebburn Town (a), 7-1
16, 17. There was friction between the sides following a bad-tempered match three days previously at Heritage Park, though Quakers put that aside to win convincingly and Purewal scored twice for the fourth time during the season.

March 2: Newcastle Benfield (a), 4-0
18. The hosts made a game of it for the first 20 minutes, but then Dowson headed a ball into Purewal's path to put Darlington ahead on 22 minutes and it was then business as usual. With Thompson, Dowson and Steven Johnson also netting Quakers then strolled to a 4-0 win that was as comfortable as the scoreline suggests.

March 6: Norton (h), 6-1
19, 20. Goals 19 and 20 came during a March midweek fixture at Heritage Park, a comfortable 6-1 win over Norton when the only grip was that Quakers did not score against the Teesside strugglers. The match was Purewal’s last for a couple of weeks as he missed games at home to Shildon (4-0) and away to Ashington (1-0).

March 30: Sunderland RCA (a), 7-2
21. The team put 11 goals past RCA inside a week, with Purewal contributing just the one. He notched in a 7-1 to win, the third time during the season that Quakers were in seventh heaven.

April 27: Team Northumbria (h), 3-1
22, 23. Goals from Chris Emms and a Purewal brace sealed a nervy win – victory meant second-placed Spennymoor Town, who had six games in hand, could no longer catch Quakers. He put Darlington ahead after the restart with a powerful header, Stephen Harrison providing the pinpoint cross, and in injury time ran on to a Jonny Davis through-ball to seal three vital points with a goal that was met with an explosion of relief and joy.

May 1: Guisborough Town (h), 3-0
24. The night Darlington’s promotion was confirmed as they received the Northern League Division One trophy and Purewal crowned the occasion with the final goal – fitting as his brother had scored Quakers’ first of the season. Purewal’s strike meant he’d scored in all ten months of the season and ended the campaign with 24 goals in 44 appearances.

2013-14
August 26: Kendal Town (h), 3-1
25, 26. After failing to score in Darlington’s first three games in the Evo-Stik First Division, Purewal dropped to the bench for the August Bank Holiday visit of Kendal. He came off the bench, however, and added to Andy Johnson’s penalty with a brace to secure a 3-1 win.

September 7: Clitheroe (a), 3-2
27, 28: Purewal added another double in Darlington’s next match and did so in dramatic circumstances away to Clitheroe. Quakers were 2-0 down until Andy Johnson pulled one back, and then Purewal grabbed the equaliser on 81 minutes by getting the final touch on Chris Moore's corner at close range. Deep into injury time came the dramatic moment, with David Dowson firing the ball across goal for Purewal Purewal to turn home and spark jubilant scenes.

September 14: Mossley (h), 4-0
29. The second goal in a 4-0 home in over Mossley took Purewal another step close to his landmark 30th goal for Darlington. The goal was his fifth in three games, a tap-in after fine work by Stephen Thompson and Andy Johnson.

October 2: Ossett Albion (h), 7-0
30, 31. Purewal scored twice for the third time in his ninth game of the season, this time as Darlington hammered lowly Ossett Albion 7-0. The first goal saw him reach 30 for the club in 53 appearances.

October 5: Ossett Town (a), 6-1
32. Darlington’s return to the FA Trophy was celebrated with a 6-1 win at Ossett Town and for the second time inside a week they were banging the goals in. This time Purewal added his eighth of the season, after good work by David Dowson, who pulled the ball back from the byline.

November 13: Blyth Spartans (h), 5-1
33. This Doodson Sport Cup tie did not attract many fans to Heritage Park, but it was well worth it for those that attended as Quakers secured a 5-1 win and scored two cracking goals, one of them by Purewal who was up against his brother Arjun in the centre of the Blyth defence.
It was Amar who got the better of his twin in the 59th minute when he burst down the right and without breaking stride hit a rocket from a tight angle into the top corner for one of his best Darlington goals.

November 23: 1 Ossett Town (h), 4-1
34. One of five goals against teams from Ossett in Purewal’s 50, this being a header at the far post when meeting a Nathan Fisher cross to put the seal on a 4-1 win. This was second game in a sequence of six successive league victories.

November 30: Mossley (a), 2-1
35. Thompson was on the scoresheet after only eight minutes away to Mossley, and soon it was 2-0 when Purewal’s deft lob beat the onrushing keeper.

December 7: Warrington Town (a), 4-1
36, 37. The day Darlington turned over the league leaders in their own backyard, Dowson and Purewal both scoring twice. Purewal’s goals were both headers, taking his seasonal tally to 13 in 19 appearances.

December 21: Burscough (a), 7-0
38, 39. Thompson took the attention on this day as he put in a ten out of ten performance to grab a hat-trick, yet it was Purewal who got the ball rolling. He headed home on 18 minutes after meeting a Terry Galbraith corner, and after the break capitalised on a defensive mistake to add his 15th of the season.

January 4: Clitheroe (h), 6-0
40, 41. The team against whom Purewal crowned a magnificent comeback to beat 3-2 at the beginning of the season were visitors to Heritage Park in January 2014 and this time there was no doubting the victors. Darlington hit Clitheroe for six with Purewal continuing his good run with another brace, taking his tally to nine in as many games.

February 1: Kendal Town (a), 5-1
42. On a rain-sodden day in Cumbria, Darlington went top of the table with another high-scoring victory. Purewal grabbed the first goal, his 42nd for the club, and others to hit the net were Thompson, Jordan Robinson, Dale Hopson (2).

April 12: 2 Padiham (h), 3-0
43, 44. For the seventh occasion during 2013-14 Purewal scored a couple of goals, and this double ended an 11-game scoring drought. The poor run meant that for the first time in his Quakers career Purewal gone through an entire calendar month without scoring.

April 19: Farsley (h), 3-0
45. Darlington secured home advantage in the playoff semi-final with a 3-0 win against a side who were hoping to finish in the top five. Purewal’s cool finish on the hour made it 2-0,his 19th league strike of the season coming came after substitute Dowson had played the ball in despite being fouled. The strike, his 21st in all competitions, proved to be Purewal’s last of the 2013-14 season.

2014-15
August 16: Warrington (h), 2-0
46. Goal number 46 in Purewal’s half-century came on the opening day of the season, though there was a question mark over it for five weeks until Evo-Stik League officials finally decided that the result from the abandoned match would stand.

September 27: Ossett Town (a), 2-0
47. Having been missing for six league games due to a hamstring strain, Purewal proved his worth by scoring after only 29 minutes of his return. It was his third goal against Ossett Town having scored twice against them last season.

October 1: Harrogate RA (h), 7-1
48, 49, 50. The night began with Purewal three goals away from a half century and ended with Quakers joint-second in the table after a 7-1 win in which the striker bagged his first hat-trick for the club. The first, a brave header, saw him collide with the Harrogate RA goakeeper who had to be substituted, the second was a carefully guided shot inside the far post from 16 yards (Darlington’s 150th goal at Heritage Park in 57 matches) and the all-important third a close-range finish after taking the ball off team-mate Adam Mitchell.