My view is that whilst Cooper is not perfect, the team have certainly not lived up to the pre-season hype following the FA Trophy win and have certainly under-performed far too often.
There was a key change in personnel with several players departing - some such as Tommy Wright and Chris Senior were expected and probably did not have a major impact whilst others - Paul Terry and Gary Smith as well as Arman Verma - have probably affected the squad more significantly on and off the pitch.
Today we add into this mix the reappearance of that perennial jinx, Howard, so that you would fear the worst for Darlo in their home game against Newport.
On the journey north, Martin outlined the utter despondency of the midweek defeat at home to Southport. A horror story - I'm glad I wasn't there.
At Doncaster a plane spotter joined our table - he was an exiled Geordie so it wasn't long before we got talking about football before talking about planes and how the US had ripped off our best designs - we were quite cheery when we arrived at Bank Top.
Howard went off to Taylors whilst I headed straight for the Quaker where I found some peple sitting at "our" table. I then noticed that half the handpumps were off. Just what was going on?
It turns out that some repairs were being made to the handpumps which meant a reduced choice: Tirril Moroccan Sunset, Jarrow McConnel's Irish Stout, Mithril Ale's Odd Shaped Balls, Lymestone Stonecutter and Banks & Taylor's Edwin Taylors Extra Stout.(left) Gary Smith and Sam Russell have a mutual moan
Unusually I only tried a couple of halves - the Moroccan Sunset and the Stonecutter before I decided to stick to the latter as it was a tasty session beer.
I'd been joined by Trevor, Brian and John W - no Tony as he was saving himself for a 6km run the next day - and after a while our table was vacated, we moved in and the match-day status quo was restored. These things are important.
And then onto Number Twenty-2 - Mordue Radgie Gadgie, Jarrow McConnells Irish Stout and Saltaire South Island Pale on tap in addition to the home beers.
Tony finally joined us at the pub for a couple of halves before he drove us down to the Arena. A low crowd was being mooted and it certainly wasn't very busy when we got there.I had a quick peruse of the club shop but nothing really jumped out at me so I headed to reception and signed in.
As I went for my pre-match wee up on level 1, I bumped into DAFTS Steve Rees - he's not been well recently but he is out of hospital now and getting to games by use of a wheelchair although he is starting to get around on crutches. Good to see him back - no reason why he shouldn't suffer like everyone else!
The main item of team news was the dropping of keeper Sam Russell - replaced by Newcastle's number 5 keeper, Ole Sodeberg. A tad harsh on Russell as he hadn't done a lot wrong so far and he's certainly saved us in some games. e.g. Grimsby.
The first half was a tightly contested affair - Darlington had probably the majority of possession and did seem to be making a concious effort.
Newport however applied some pressure so that there were some hasty clearances by the home defence - clearly they hadn't had much time to work with the new keeper and weren't prepared to leave things to him unless absolutely necessary.(right) Michael Brough shoots
For their part, the home crowd was being supportive and were only too willing to applaud hard work and good play although there was still the odd moan and groan when passes went astray.
But there was a big smile on the faces of the home fans after thirty minutes when MB-W scored from the penalty spot.
Tadhg Purcell was deemed to have been bundled over - and from what I saw through my lens it could have been one of a couple of defenders who were responsible - the ref was adamant and who am I to argue?
And then after fifteen minutes of the second half, Purcell was once again involved - this time to poke home the ball after Hatch had headed down a cross. It was cleared by the Newport defence but only after it had crossed the line and there were a few heart-stopping seconds before we were sure we'd scored.
At half-time I noticed Gary Smith in block 11 - apparently he has been to a few games this season - and he came down to the pitch to have a few words with an obviously unhappy Sam Russell.
In the second half, Darlo created a few more chances - MB-W going close with a long range shot which almost made it 3-0.
Debutant Sodeberg didn't have a lot more to do except collect a couple of crosses - unfortunately he fumbled the ball on each occasion. Peter Beardsley was in the stand, presumably making notes - I suspect like me, he wasn't greatly impressed.
All in all it wasn't a brilliant performance but we did what we had to and got all three points. Jamie Chandler worked his socks off and was rightly awarded declared man of the match. I thought the defence played well and protected their new keeper. Up front Purcell looked busier - hopefully his first goal will spur him on.
On the way back to the station we stopped off to get some fish and chips - very nice they were too - before catching the train back to King's Cross.
We had planned to celebrate the win with a few beers in the Euston Tap but Martin was developing a healthy sniffle all the way back and he decided to just go home instead.
(above) Mark Bridge-Wilkinson scores from the penalty spot to give the Qaukers the lead
No comments:
Post a Comment