Originally scheduled to play Hebburn Town this Sunday, the League have rescheduled the fixtures to cater for a postponed County Cup game. This means that the Quaker Women will now travel to Hartlepool to take on Pools Youth. With the return fixture already scheduled at Eastbourne the following Sunday, it will be two weeks in a row of Darlington vs Hartlepool. 

The opponents were relegated from the NE Regional League last year back into our division. They’ve had a mixed start to life back in the Durham FA League One, winning their first two games against Leam Rangers and Newton Aycliffe and then losing the next 2 against Stockton Town and Boldon. Last weekend they took league leaders Birtley Town to penalties in the County Cup after a 2-2 draw but narrowly lost the game on spot kicks.

Similar to Darlington, Pools have also had a good FA Cup Run, also getting to the Third Round Qualifying where they were knocked out against higher league opposition Preston. 

The last time the two sides met in a competitive fixture, was Darlington’s first season in 21/22. Pools Youth were promoted that year and beat Darlington 3-0 in the May of 2022. Pools had previously also won the previous game 2-1 in March of 2022 but Darlington knocked them out of the FA Cup in the October of 2021 with goals coming from Alice Wearmouth, Aimee Dagnall and Olivia Whitworth. 

The sides have since met in pre season with a few friendly games being played. Both teams will be looking to bounce back from County Cup exits and looking to claim the 3 points to push them up the table this season. 

The game is being played at High Tunstall College in Hartlepool and it would be great to have some travelling support. We are back to the usual league kick off time at 2pm.