Under 18s pick up point at Lambton Street
By Ray Simpson
[caption id="attachment_17314" align="alignnone" width="300"] Darlington Under 18s.Back row: Tom Thu...
Back row: Tom Thurgood (coach), Jonny Kane (coach), James Marley, Alex Nelson, Carl Robinson, Nathan Stephenson, Lewis Rees, Johnny Lazenby, Max Landau, Caleb Padurariu, Andrew Jinks (Manager)
Front row: Connor Pearce, Ethan Harker, Reece Allison, Jordan Lee, Lewis Walton, Adam Lee-Shields, Danny Pigg[/caption]
Sunderland Lambton Street Under 18s 1 Darlington Youth Under 18s 1
Quakers collected a point at Lambton Street to keep them on target for the title.
Darlington started brightly with a few very good chances to take an early lead but couldn’t convert to the frustration of the team and the coaches.
Darlington had most of the possession in the first half with Lambton Street trying to catch Darlo on the counter attack with their pace up front and out on the wings. Darlington had a good chance midway through the first half when there was some good football played on the counter attack between Jordan Lee, Nathan Stephenson and Lewis Rees which ended in the goalkeeper making a good save off a Nathan Stephenson shot and then Lewis Rees smashing the rebound off the crossbar.
Darlington had a scare towards the end of the first half when Lambton Street had a shot hit off the post and land in the middle of the goalmouth.
It was a quick start to the second half and Darlo going on the attack straight away with no luck.
Unfortunately they found themselves a goal down from a corner, whipped in from the left and a goalmouth scramble ended with the ball at the back post where it was prodded in.
Darlo continued with the pressure and had most of their joy down the right hand side through Alex nelson and Jordan Lee. They found the equaliser late on when a corner was put into the box by Jonny Lazenby and there was a bit of pinball in the box until the ball dropped to the feet of centre back Max Landau who placed the ball into the bottom corner.
Darlington could have got the winner in the last minute when Nathan Stephenson curled the ball off the top of the crossbar. Man of the match was Ethan Harker with an impressive second game for the club.
Coach Jonny Kane said; “We were the top team for most of the game and were unlucky that we didn’t get the three points, especially with the number of great chances we created in the game.”
Quakers are five points clear of New Hartley at the top of the table, but New Hartley have two games in hand.
League Table
POS | P | W | D | L | GD | PTS | |
1 | Darlington Youth U18's | 13 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 27 | 34 |
2 | New Hartley FC U18's | 11 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 46 | 29 |
3 | Shildon AFC U18's | 11 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 30 | 27 |
4 | South Shields U18's | 14 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 12 | 23 |
5 | Lambton Street U18's | 13 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 11 | 21 |
6 | Ryton Black's U18's | 15 | 6 | 2 | 7 | -7 | 20 |
7 | Durham City AFC U18's | 16 | 4 | 5 | 7 | -10 | 17 |
8 | Stockton Town U18's | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 16 |
9 | Newcastle Benfield U18's | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 14 |
10 | Ryhope CW U18's | 16 | 3 | 3 | 10 | -34 | 12 |
11 | Spennymoor Town U18's | 16 | 3 | 2 | 11 | -28 | 11 |
12 | Darlington RA U18's | 13 | 0 | 4 | 9 | -25 | 4 |
13 | Esh Winning Development U18's | 11 | 1 | 1 | 9 | -43 | 1 * |
* adjustment made |