05-01-19 – Report – Darlington FC 3 Kidderminster Harriers 0

Back to square one at Darlington

Report: Phil Lench

The Harriers turned in a truly woeful performance at Darlington today to run out 3-0 losers and not even garner a single shot on target. Following the home win against Hereford FC on New Years Day and the addition of two new? players the fans that travelled all that way were expecting more.

Three important players were still missing through injury with Billy Daniels, Dan Bradley and Ed Williams all out meaning that on the bench for a second week was Milan Butterfield and for a third time Jaiden White. Both are in the academy. Also on the bench was James Baxendale and Aaron Phillips along with new signing Josh Heaton on his return to his former club.

We started the game quite brightly with some decent passing and then a volley from outside the area from Lee Vaughan but began to fade once Darlington switched on. They had a half chance from a corner that was scrabbled away but then a few minutes later took the lead.

From fully twenty five yards from goal Stephen Thompson spotted Brandon Hall well off his line and lobbed the ball over his head. From that minute onwards Darlington took charge. 

Jordan Nicholson, Thompson again and then Harvey Saunders had further chances before Declan Weeks tried a free kick through a ruck of players that was collected easily by Jonny Maddison. We tried to get back into the game but with the home side playing the high line we couldn’t make any headway.

Just before the break James O’Connor limped off to be replaced by new boy Heaton for the last few seconds.

HT: 1 – 0

After the break the fans were hoping to see some kind of improvement but it wasn’t forthcoming. In the first minute George Waring was through on goal but a nudge in the back by a Darlo man sent him down in the area only for the referee to say that he dived and brandished a yellow card at him.

It took three further minutes for the home side to double the lead. A corner was delivered in and wasn’t dealt with leaving Will Smith to head home unmarked. Just two minutes on and the lead was increased once again.

This time the former Peterborough and Nuneaton starlet Jordan Nicholson skipped past one defender and then another before firing the ball in to the back of the net. The game was over as a contest and there looked to be no way back. Now I should say ‘but’ but sadly I can’t. We failed to threaten Maddisons goal again and could have gone further behind when Thompson had two further chances to add to his tally when he headed in from a corner and then had a shot at goal. Both saved by Hall.

Our only real chance came when Kane Richards was played through to find himself on goal but, as usual with him, he fell down. We sent on Baxendale for Sam Austin in the hope of going into a more attacking mode and then later on Russ Penn made way for Milan Butterfield to make his debut. Maybe it was his naivety, or his desire to impress, but he soon picked his first yellow card. Richards also got booked too when he went in too hard and just missed out on a red one.

The game finally ended with the Harriers back to losing ways and a drop of two places back down to ninth. We’re back up this way on Tuesday to face Spennymoor Town and this time it’ll be with even fewer players as Ryan Johnson will be starting his three game suspension and Jimmy O’Connor might be in the treatment room with the others.

FT: 3 – 0

Goals for Darlington FC: Thompson 11, Smith 51, Nicholson 53

Talk about the game here

Latest table and stats here

Darlington FC	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
Maddison
Trotman
Kokolo
Smith
Hughes
Galbraith
Elliott
Wheatley
Saunders			62
Thompson			80
Nicholson			76
Subs:
Wollerton			80
C Hall
Ainge			76
Burn
Palmer			62
Harriers	Goals	Subs	Time	Cards
B Hall
Vaughan
Austin			60
O’Connor			45
Horsfall
Johnson
Weeks
Penn			72
Waring
Chambers
Richards
Subs:
Heaton			45
Butterfield			72
Baxendale			60
Phillips
White
Referee:
Mr Matthew Corlett
Liverpool