Spennymoor Town 1 Darlington 2

DARLINGTON’S domination of their fixtures with Spennymoor Town continued thanks to a comical own goal by Joe Tait.

The former Darlington defender put the ball past his own goalkeeper in the second half when attempting to head it back to Dan Lowson, completing Quakers’ turnaround after falling behind early on.

The victory means Darlington have won five and drawn two of the meetings with their local rivals since the beginning of the 2012-13 season.

On this occasion, unlike previous tense and fraught affairs between these clubs, only local pride was at stake for Quakers, although the play-offs remain a mathematical possibility.

Nonetheless, it was a win thoroughly enjoyed by the 776 Darlington supporters in attendance as well as manager Tommy Wright.

“I’ve loved it tonight, I think we’ve sent a lot of our fans home happy,” said Wright, who has now won eight of his last 12 games having tasted victory in only one of his first 12.

“The players are bouncing off the walls and can’t wait for Saturday. They’re asking how many games it is now since we lost to Spennymoor.

“We couldn’t have asked for a worse start but we responded really well and after that moment – barring two five-minute spells over the rest of the game – I thought we were the better team.

“We deserved it, but it was quite strange circumstances to score the winner.

“We brought a massive following over and it felt like a home game, so I’m glad to give them that win.”

Darlington are now 11th, six points off the play-offs with three games to go, whereas Jason Ainsley’s team are seventh and defeat little for their cause.

They have four games to play, however, having suffered a series of postponements, including this fixture at Easter due to a waterlogged pitch, conditions in stark contrast to yesterday’s blazing sunshine on the hottest day of the year.

It was Spennymoor who made a blistering start with ex-Darlington midfielder Jamie Chandler scoring.

Terry Galbraith headed a harmless ball into the air inside Darlington’s penalty area, Andrew Johnson was first to the loose ball and had a shot blocked, Spennymoor again first to it when Rob Ramshaw pounced to feed Chandler who rifled home.

Chandler, Quakers’ man of the match at Wembley in the FA Trophy final, choose Moors over Darlington after leaving Gateshead in 2016, and his exuberant celebrations demonstrated that he clearly enjoyed this rare appearance on the scoresheet.

A volley by Tait, one of four ex-Darlington players in the Moors starting XI, went over after meeting a Mark Anderson as the hosts’ good start continued.

It could easily have been 2-0. First, Tait’s powerful downward header after a corner was saved by Aynsley Pears, and when Quakers were unable to clear the danger Glen Taylor saw a shot deflected over the bar.

Pears saved again when catching a volley by Andrew Johnson after another Spennymoor, but against the run of play it became 1-1 and again it was that man Styche proving the goal.

He took the ball down on his chest and charged past Jamie Curtis, Quakers’ striker too quick for the centre-back, and then drove forward before firing the ball low into the far corner.

It was a confident finish, his 13th goal in 19 games for Darlington and 23 including the ten he got for Tamworth at the beginning of the season.

His celebrations were notable too, confronting Ramshaw and telling him to shush following an earlier verbal spat, and he did likewise with Chandler.

The goal not only restored parity, though Dave Syers saved Darlington from falling behind.

Curtis took the ball down in the box and was about to pull the trigger at close-range, then Syers appeared from nowhere to execute a perfectly-timed challenge.

Darlington looked dangerous whenever they ventured forward, particularly down the right, and forced one more chance before the break.

After good work by Styche on the right to close down Curtis, the ball was worked to Joe Wheatley, a player who Wright revealed before the game would like to score more goals, but he dragged his effort well wide.

It was the final chance of a compelling and competitive half, one which in Moors saw more of the ball, but Quakers had their moments.

It was Tait, however, who had a moment to forget on the hour mark.

The defender, who could never be described as a former favourite of Quakers fans, intercepted a Thompson cross, but Lowson had charged out of his goal, a lack of communication between the pair proving costly.

The embarrassing gaffe put Quakers 2-1 ahead and the longer the game went on the less likely Moors looked able to do anything about it.

Having drawn two days previously with Kidderminster, they tired, though Ainsley did not use it as an excuse, and were unable to work up a head of steam.

Ainsley sent on Ryan Hall for Anderson, but the sub made little impact, whereas Darlington replaced Syers with Gary Brown, who went to right-back, providing defensive solidity.

Darlington were rarely a threat in the second half, though Thompson almost scored with a whipping a low shot pushed wide by Lowson.

There were ironic cheers when Tait, under pressure from sub Harvey Saunders, successfully headed the ball back to Lowson.

But despite five added minutes Spennymoor were unable to create one last chance to stop Darlington securing another victory at the Brewery Field.

Rather than use their exhausting schedule as an excuse, Ainsley instead blamed poor defending.

“I don’t think tiredness that was a factor. Yes, we had tired legs, but I don’t think that contributed to the goals,” he said.

“The goals came from bad play. I don’t think we looked jaded.

“There wasn’t t much in the game, I feel we had more of the chances.

“You can’t expect us to score three goals to win every game, sometimes you need to win ugly. We don’t do

“I don’t think I’ve seen anyone give us goals like we did tonight. It’s basic defending and it’s killed us.

“Dan had one save to make in the second half. In the second half we weren’t great, but we got around their area more than they did, but if can’t keep clean sheets you don’t deserve to go up.”