Match Report: Southport 2 Darlington 0 (From The Northern Echo)

Defeat for Quakers, but rescue deal nears

10:40pm Tuesday 14th February 2012 in Darlington FC Match Reports By Craig Stoddart, Deputy Sports Editor

DARLINGTON are optimistic that there will be good news regarding the future of the club with a rescue deal on the verge of being sealed, but their woes on the pitch continue.

They lost 2-0 at Southport to a more physical and sharper outfit who are pushing for the play-offs, but Quakers are left anxiously looking over their shoulder at the relegation places.

The defeat, thanks to goals at the beginning of each half at Haigh Avenue, sees Darlington drop a place to 19th and they are now level on points with fourth-bottom spot.

Yet, it was Craig Liddle's side that started brighter and had an opportunity to take the lead after only six minutes, but Ryan Bowman wasted a chance that he would soon regret.

Having charged down Simon Grand's clearance, he was faced with keeper Tony McMillan who was well off his line, but Quakers' striker scuffed his shot wide and within 120 seconds Darlington fell behind.

It was a fine strike by Karl Ledsham who showed a shooting instinct lacking in Bowman. The left-winger arrived at the far post to meet James Smith's cross-field pass to volley past Jordan Pickford.

But Darlington played well in the early stages, slickly moving the ball around in the opposition half with some nice touches from Dale Hopson and Clark Keltie putting his foot on the ball.

The midfielder was making his first start since returning to the club while Sunderland loanee Liam Bagnall made his debut at right-back.

It was not long before Bowman was handed another scoring chance, but again it was untaken.

Adam Rundle played a through-ball and Bowman was faced with another one-on-one, but McMillan saved.

The Sandgrounders then created a stream of chances during a spell in which they were on top, starting with Sam Sheridan letting fly from 30 yards, but the effort rolled narrowly wide of Jordan Pickford's goal.

The keeper's first fine save of an impressive 45 minutes saw him save low to his left from Shaun Whalley, before the Pickford then parried the ball wide when tested by Vinny Mukendi.

Scott Harrison cleared off the line from Tony Gray who should have scored, but fortunately for Darlington his shot was mishit.

John McReady had a shot blocked when he worked his way into the penalty area, and on the counter Bagnall did well to tackle Andy Owens as he lined up a shot.

But Southport wasted little time in doubling their advantage after the restart. After Sheridan saw a vicious effort curl away from goal after a corner, a Gray through-ball allowed Shaun Whalley to squeeze past Aaron Brown and plant a shot between Pickford's legs.

The two-goal deficit never looked like being wiped out as Darlington struggled to make an impact after the break.

Lone striker Bowman worked hard, but was too isolated and he was unable to hold the ball up.

The closest a limp Quakers came to troubling McMillan in the second half came when Southport centre-back Steve Akrigg tested his own keeper with a header when cutting out a Rundle cross.

The hosts also won plenty of aerial balls in Darlington territory with a series of long throws and twice coming close to goal.

Owens took them, hurling the ball into the danger area with Akrigg hitting the post with a header and shortly after Brown cleared off the line from Gray after another Owens throw.

Gray was then denied by Pickford who claimed plucked the ball from the striker's feet after he rounded Scott Harrison.

Darlington's problems in the final third were demonstrated when Liddle used youth team midfielder Rob Ramshaw as a forward when he sent him on as a substitute.

Late on youth team defender David Ferguson made his senior debut as a substitute on a night in which eight of the 16 were youth team products.