Darlington Reserves 4 South Shields Reserves 1

Darlington Reserves played with ten men for nearly an hour and still beat South Shields Reserves 4-1 at Eastbourne on Saturday.

Many thought that the second yellow card shown to centre half Connor Lane in the 35th minute was harsh, but then ten men shrugged off his absence to win 4-1 and climb to 12th in the table.

“It was another very good performance, South Shields couldn’t live with our passing and movement, even though we were reduced to ten men,” said joint manager Mark Fanning.

“After the sending off, we changed things around a bit at half time, and the lads responded really well. Some of our football was superb.”

Joey Smith, Derek Wade, Kurt Matthews and Nathan Stephenson scored the goals, while young keeper Harry Donkinson saved a penalty at the other end.

Their next game is at Redcar Athletic next weekend.