Quakers fear yet another postponed game (From The Northern Echo)

Quakers fear yet another postponed game

9:48am Wednesday 13th March 2013 in Sport By Craig Stoddart, Deputy Sports Editor

DARLINGTON fear this evening’s game with Shildon will become the latest in a string of postponements in a stop-start season.

The weekend’s game with Guisborough Town was called off due to a waterlogged pitch, meaning that Quakers have not had a Heritage Park fixture on a Saturday since November 3.

The Guisborough game has not yet been rearranged, but tonight’s match may also need to be pencilled in for a later date due to the freezing temperatures. While the snow that has fallen recently had last night all but thawed, that could lead to a waterlogged pitch.

Should it fall victim to the weather, Darlington would, beginning with Saturday’s match at Ashington, have 12 games to play in the final 37 days of the season.

Quakers’ situation, however, pales in comparison to others as all Northern League teams are facing various levels of a backlog.

Title rivals Spennymoor Town have 20 matches plus the two-legged FA Vase semifinal to squeeze in before the scheduled end of the campaign on April 27 as well as the Durham Challenge Cup final, while they remain in the Northern League Cup.

Shildon’s position is similarly worrying as, like Moors, they have also reached the Vase semi-finals, but also have 25 league matches to complete.

They won a Vase quarterfinal replay at Ascot United on Saturday when Sam Garvie scored a hat-trick while the other strike came from Jamie Owen, who also netted for Billingham Town against Darlington at Heritage Park early this season before moving to Shildon after turning down a move to Quakers.

Stephen Thompson is available for Quakers tonight after missing last week’s win over Norton through suspension.

Quakers’ advantage over Spennymoor was reduced to 23 points on Monday due to their win at Team Northumbria, while they play tomorrow evening at home to South Shields.

• Car Park C, at the rear of the March Hare pub, will be closed this evening. Bishop Auckland had arranged for a fair to use the car park before the match was arranged.

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