HARROGATE RA 0 DARLINGTON 2

DARLINGTON manager Martin Gray used 19 players as his side claimed their second pre-season victory courtesy of a 2-0 win at Harrogate RA.

Pre-season games are useful for players to test their fitness and sharpness, and in that respect Quakers improved as the game went on.

The RA were nearly the first to score on four minutes from the second corner of the game, when the ball was cleared back to the taker, Chris Ovington, and he hit a low right-foot shot that trialist keeper Chris Elliott, who has played for several Northern League clubs, pushed around the post.

With six other players starting their first pre-season game, Quakers lacked Saturday’s fluency and passing accuracy until the 17th minute when Lee Gaskell laid the ball off with a clever flick for Lewis Nightingale to run into the box, but he pulled his right-foot shot wide.

Nightingale then popped up at the other end when Harrogate sprang the offside trap and Harry Brown ran through, but the midfielder ran back well and got in a saving tackle when the Harrogate man only had Elliott to beat.

Quakers almost took the lead when Nathan Cartman, playing against his old club, tried his luck with a left-footed shot from 25 yards that was held up on the wind and dropped just wide.

And Quakers were lucky not to go behind when Dan Barrett broke away for Harrogate, only for his chip over Elliott to drift a foot wide of the left-hand post.

Quakers took the lead from their first corner just on half-time. Nightingale’s driven low corner was cleared back to him by a defender. He cleverly beat his man, and attempted to cross to the far post, but the ball took a deflection and looped into the net.

Gray made seven changes for the second half and introduced a new keeper, Andy Dawson, but it was one of the quartet of players who stayed on, skipper Kevin Burgess, who put Quakers 2-0 up five minutes into the second half. Substitute Liam Hardy, with his back to goal, laid the ball off for him to score from six yards.

Amar Purewal nearly got another when he got away in the inside-left position, but he fired over the top.

Burgess was then subbed for teenager James Marley, and as Quakers reorganised at the back, Izzy Mbire missed an easy chance to score from six yards.

Quakers were sharper than Harrogate after that, and took firm control of the game, with Purewal going close again and Ryan Winder having two shots blocked.

Darlington return to action when they play a friendly at Billingham Synthonia next Tuesday.

Darlington: Elliott (Dawson 45), Marrs (Scott 45), Watson (Lovegreen 45), Portas, Burgess (Marley 64), Galbraith, Winder, L Scott (Hardy 45), Cartman (Turnbull 45), Gaskell (Purewal 45), Nightingale (Mitchell 45).