Match Sponsored by ABLBusiness.co.uk
Two Vanarama National League North play-off hopefuls face off at Nethermoor on Tuesday night as Darlington make the trip to LS20 for a 7:45pm kick-off.
Segregation will be in place with Darlington fans allocated the JM Glendinning seated stand and uncovered Railway End of the ground with entry via turnstiles 5-8.
The Lions rose into the play-off places with Saturday’s 2-1 win over Gloucester, our first on home soil of the year as Darlington were toppling Alfreton Town 3-0 at Blackwell Meadows to put them one place behind on goal difference in 7th.
It was a battle on Saturday after The Tigers’ early goal swung the contest in their favour but the return of Aaron Martin from injury changed the game, the second half substitute played a vital role in Kaine Felix’s equaliser before then Gabriel Johnson scored straight from a corner to seal the win.
Following on from last weekend’s impressive point at Altrincham it was a big win for Marcus Bignot and Russ O’Neill’s side as we look to improve our home form to match the impressive away record.
It was the perfect weekend for the Management Team after it was revealed on Friday they had all agreed new contracts until the end of the 2021/22 season.
Darlington are on a good run in the league with defeat at Spennymoor on New Year’s day their only loss in six games with wins over Chester, York City, Spennymoor, Blyth Spartans and Alfreton thrown in they have risen up the league to occupy the final play-off spot.
They name former Lion Will Hatfield in their squad with the midfielder joining Darlo in the summer bringing an end to his four year spell in LS20, it will be his first return to Nethermoor on Tuesday night.
Speaking after Saturday’s win over Gloucester, Joint Manager Russ O’Neill said “We have played a lot of teams in and around the play-offs, we knew what a threat they would be today particularly from set pieces and within five minutes they have scored from one. We played a lot of good stuff in the first 20 minutes of the first half.”
“I think that is one of the biggest three points of the season, we came out second half with more energy, more forceful and the changes helped us, we could have been more comfortable as we had 5 or 6 chances other than the ones we scored.”
A few eyebrows were raised at Nethermoor when Aaron Martin was subbed on for Kennedy Digie in the second half but O’Neill explained the reasons why “We were a goal down and were trying to be more forceful everywhere on the pitch, Kennedy has been excellent at left sided centre half and Aaron Martin made a big difference up front, all the front three were different class today. Lee Shaw had one ruled out and somehow the keeper stopped his lob, I have no idea how he saved it.”
Speaking of Gabriel Johnson’s impact on the game Russ said “He will be claiming a goal and an assist! All through the group we were different class but to come and lift ourselves shows how much we are growing and how much we are learning to win ugly games.”
A delighted O’Neill thought the win capped off a great couple of days following the news of their new contracts “We couldn’t have asked for anymore, it was a great win and weekend. We have really loved our first 18 months here, after a difficult first 12 months we are putting our DNA on the group, we have a good young group that we want to try and keep together as much as we can. Now we want to to keep everything together and get the players to follow us on on these contracts.”
Looking ahead to the visit of Darlington Russ said “It will be a real tough game but no tougher than we have had today but it will be a different type of game. This is what we are preaching to these lads, we have to win all different types of games and today we found a way to come out of it and for me that is the most pleasing three points of the season.”
Match winner Gabriel Johnson spoke to Tom Feaheny after the game “Coming back from 1-0 down at half-time makes it even more sweeter, the togetherness of the lads is top notch at the minute and it shows it with the comeback. We have been working on hitting the corners to the back post, it was a real inswinger and luckily it went in and we got the win, that’s all that matters.”
The midfielder wants to continue the push to the play-offs and praised his attacking teammates “That is what we are going for, like I said the lads are together and right now we are going through a great patch and long may it continue. The whole front line with Lee Shaw coming back, Aaron’s return and Kaine as well it is really looking good at the moment.”
“We are trying to get back-to-back home wins, our home performances haven’t been as good as what we would want this season but backing this up with another win would get us back to where we want to be.”
