Darlington Blackwell Meadows v Spennymoor Town Reserves

Venue: Darlington Education Village, Salters Road South, Haughton-le-Skerne, Darlington DL1 2AN.
Kickoff: 13:30 Sat 30 Nov 2013.
Weather: cloudy with sunny spells, dry, very light wind, 7℃ but felt warmer in the sunshine (or perhaps it was my massive winter coat that was just a bit too thick!?).

LOCATION REPORT

FOR SPECTATORS

SatNav: DL1 2AN.
Staff: none (although the site was staffed by a caretaker/groundsman).
Parking: massive school carpark, 200+ spaces.
Public transport: #9 (Darlington/Springfield circular) stops on Salters Road South, 30m away.

Refreshments: no facilities onsite (unless the school is open for access to vending machines).
Toilets: changing block (main school closed).
Kids: nothing, but plenty of space for kickabouts.

Weather protection:
Rain: zero.
Wind: zero
Sun: zero
Cold: zero

FOR PLAYERS

Pitch: grass, a bit long and soggy in places.
Floodlights: none
Changing: full changing facilities in purpose-built block

MATCH REPORT

Approx crowd: exactly 21 onlookers (plus only a few subs!). All-male except for two loyal Spennymums.

Full-time [h/t] score (colours):
5 [2] Darlington Blackwell Meadows (orange/black stripes)
2 [1] Spennymoor Town Reserves (pink, black)

Bookings: 1 (Darlo)
Sent Off: 0

Official Match Report:
DurhamAllianceLeague.org.uk

NORVENMUNKI's COMMENTS

Under a blotchy blue-greyish sky, this was a thunderous blood-and-guts clash in Durham County Trophy Round 2;  neither side wanting to ease off in the hunt for silverware. Spennymoor, pretty in pink, were especially treating victory as essential, so much so that you'd be forgiven for thinking lives really did depend upon it.

As for the guys themselves, Spennymoor had a mix of older (angrier) heads and young first-team wannabes and Darlington were an altogether more youthful (and quieter) outfit.

It was certainly no place for young ears: plenty of outbursts of effing-and-jeffing between players.
At half-time, with the hosts 2-1 up, the Spennymoor coaches delivered an expletive-filled tirade by way of encouragement, especially player-coach (#5).

After the restart, it seemingly had little effect as Darlo extended their lead through neat footwork from Nathan Walls. He was twisting the Spennymoor defenders inside-out throughout, and bagged a second-half hat-trick for his efforts.

Contrastingly, the Darlo keeper, Andrew Ward, had an up-and-down game. Having earlier saved a Spennymoor penalty, he then went bonkers by wandering out of his box and was lobbed from distance (then got booked for kicking the ball away in frustration!).

The final whistle was greeted by the customary mixture of profanities and congratulations.
Spennymoor were not happy, their handful of travelling fans muttering as they trudged back to their cars.
As for Darlo, they had booked a deserved place in the next round, and Walls had earned himself a match-ball (although he may have to rescue one of those which Spennymoor's wasteful strikers had blasted over the fence!).

GBA rating: unlikely