Match report

Swansea City 1 v 1 Darlington

Report courtesy of John Burgum - Evening Post

Far from dismayed, Jan Molby offered a wry smile after Swansea had escaped with a valuable point towards the 70-odd needed to secure a Third Division play-off spot.

While many viewed the failure to beat the team with the worst away defensive record in the country as two points dropped, the manager was expressing great relief at a rare drawn match.

"I'm not down because that was definitely a point gained against the best team we've played," insisted Molby. "They gave us the runaround. We could not get anywhere near them and I'm sure if they could have finished better we would not have got anything," said the player-manager.

A thoroughly honest assessment of a Swansea performance which promised much after Molby's fourth-minute penalty but went steadily downhill in the face of Darlington's greater movement, pace and defensive discipline.

"Darlington's performance did not surprise me. I tried to warn everyone about them but I don't think I got through. When you score after a few minutes you think that's it but I knew they were a good team. What I didn't know was that they could play that well," explained Molby.

It's hard to imagine that Darlington have conceded 45 goals on their travels but former Swansea striker David Hodgson has transformed the club in the past three months. He has brought in Adam Reed and Richard Hope from Blackburn to link up at the back with skipper Andy Crosby, a Molby target last summer, and the trio have certainly given Darlington a much more solid look.

Reed's only error was to be caught tugging at Steve Torpey's shirt right in front of referee Clive Wilkes who had little option in pointing to the spot. But the Gloucester official seemed reluctant to repeat the decision when Torpey was clearly pushed in the back late on.

With penalty specialist David Penney suspended, Molby took on the responsibility himself for the first time since missing one on the opening day of the season. Driven wide of Teuvo Moilanen's despairing dive, Molby's second goal of the season should have eased the path to home win number 12 but Darlington's 6ft 7in. Finnish under-21 goalkeeper was never beaten again.

Despite Molby's intelligent prompting, spraying 40-yard passes to all corners of the ground, Swansea's play was hurried. The composure was missing, certainly in the final third of the field where the front men found it difficult penetrating a well organised defence.

Loan recruits Paul Brayson and John Hills forced saves from Moilanen, but the best Swansea opportunities fell to David Thomas either side of Darlington's equaliser. Released by Molby's diagonal pass Brayson drove the ball into the box where the striker's haste made it much too easy for the goalkeeper. Another went in the direction of the East Stand. With goal-scoring opportunities at a premium Swansea could not afford to pass up such chances.

Darlington, counter attacking with pace and precision, eventually made them pay but the writing was already on the wall after Roger Freestone had been forced into several saves, including a stunning one handed save from Glen Naylor when he was off balance.

Naylor was in the heart of things again after YTS substitute Michael Oliver had helped to create the opening, and when his shot hit the post it rebounded perfectly for Robbie Blake whose mis-hit effort seemed to take an eternity to cross the line.

It was no more than Darlington deserved, but on a day when others tripped up as well it was easy to understand why Molby was still smiling. "On that form Darlington are going to surprise a lot of other promotion candidates in the next few weeks," predicted Molby.