Darlington RA reached the fourth round of the Sunderland Shipowners' Cup with a late winner against high-flying Birtley Town at Brinkburn Road. There was never much between the sides but RA just had the edge after staging one of only two games to be played in the league.
A small band of volunteers worked on the pitch from 7.30am and secretary Martyn Jackson was ebullient at the end of the match.
"We had to pull out all the stops to get the game on and with so many other fixtures called off we had our best gate of the season. We certainly felt that our efforts had been worthwhile when we scored the winning goal with just five minutes left," said Jackson.
Birtley Town, who boasted a 100 per cent record in cup competitions and have reached the semi finals of the prestigious Durham Challenge Cup, went into the tie favourites to extend their winning sequence.
But RA, who have improved following a slow start to the season, were able to field their strongest side and took the game to their opponents at every opportunity.
Considering the difficult conditions, the teams produced good football but with both goalkeepers commanding, it looked as if the tie would go into extra time.
With five minutes remaining, however, RA finally broke the deadlock. Stephen Johnson made a good run and when his shot was parried by the keeper, it fell to Stephen Sinclair who shot home.
The only other game was in the League in Cumbria where Windscale finished 3-1 ahead of Redcar Town who had the better of the opening 25 minutes.
They deservedly went in front through Mark Bytheway before Windscale's Howard Kirkbride levelled.
It was 2-1 in the 60th minute when Peter O'Donnell applied the final touch after Hodgson had just beaten keeper Richard English to a pass by Lee Dixon.
Redcar went in search of an equaliser but left the way open for Windscale's Dean Rogers to score.
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