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Match report |
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Darlington v Swansea | |
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Want a look around the Reynolds Arena
 About 100 Swans fans made the trip through the snow to take in this league two match. The newly named Williamson Motors Stadium is a good ½ an hour walk (or 5 min drive) from the old Feethams ground. A rather steep £5 to park, but the stadium is nothing short of superb and seems a similar design to the new white rock although has a larger capacity of 27,500. Anyway, onto the game the Swans lined up 4-5-1 with Forbes and McLeod playing well advanced to help Trundle in attack Gueret
Gurney - Izzy - Austin - Ricketts
Britton - Bean - Martinez
Forbes Mcleod
Trundle
 The Swans took the initiative in the opening exchanges. On 5 minutes the Darlington keeper was called into action and pushed a Trundle effort onto the keepers left hand post. And then a couple of minutes later with an effort that keeper Sam Russell smartly turned away to his right this time for a corner. Darlington took the lead some what controversially when what appeared to be a good challenge from Austin was ruled a foul by the linesman. A nice free kick and header later, it was 1-0 to Darlington.  Swans responded almost immediately and two minutes later, a through ball to Marcus Bean from Matinez was taken into the left hand side of the area, he rounded the advancing keeper and was fouled, but stayed on his feet and squared the ball to Forbes who had the simple job of tapping the ball between two defenders on the line and claimed his 5th goal of the season. The Swans had a number of chances in the second half the most noticeable when a mistake from the defender gave McLeod a 2 on 1 with the keeper with Trundle next to him, his shot was well saved at the keepers right and was turned away for the corner.  With the score level and The Swans failing to take their chances, (And a linesman who seriously needs an eye test) the sucker punch was always on the cards, and that's exactly what happened, a free kick from the Right was put in the mixer there was a goalmouth scramble and then 2,000 happy Darlo fans. Izzy almost became a hero at the end but his header from a Martinez corner (Which bar that one were poor all evening) was cleared off the line. Again the linesman did his best to stop any more Swans chances, and Darlo finally bagged the win. A point would have been a fair result but at least there was an improved performance for a big game on Saturday.  Player ratings Gueret 7 - Delt with most things well, not much chance with either goal Gurney 9 - Man of the Match , attacked and defended well - worked really hard Izzy 7 - Solid game - better than Saturday (almost got a deserved late equaliser) Austin 7 - Decent game Ricketts 8 - Great game, bar the odd rubbish pass Britton 6 - Quiet game - not really involved enough Bean 7 - Set up goal - some good runs, and a lot of hard work Martinez 6 - An improvement on Saturday - but still below par Mcleod 6 - Not so influential as in his cameo on Saturday, but some nice touches, two great crosses, should have put us ahead early in the second half Forbes 7 - Good effort and commitment - lack final ball Trundle 7 - Couple of decent shots - did well considering he well marked and isolated in a lone striker role for chunks of the match. Thorpe 6 - Did OK - but wide right is not his position, did play up front when they scored but only for 7 or 8 minutes
An improved performance on Saturday, and a little unlucky to come away with nothing. |
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