Darlo Uncovered

83' | RED CARD. Harrogate down to 10 as Warren Burrell is sent off for a late lunge on Wheatley.

86' | PENALTY TO DARLO. Harrogate down to 9 men!

87' | GOAL!!! Darlington FC 3-1 Harrogate Town. Stephen Thompson! Penalty converted.

87' | Terry Kennedy was sent off for Harrogate for the penalty. Dragged down Saunders as last man.

89' | Substitutions:- Harvey Saunders & Joe Wheatley OFF - Greg Mills & Mitchell Glover ON

FT: 3-1. A Christmas cracker! Four goals, two red cards and three much-needed points for Darlington. Styche (2) and Thompson the DFC scorers.

Tommy Wright’s first win as Quakers manager at the seventh attempt.

Love having criticism shoved down my throat like this. Great result. Now let's turn it into a bit of form.

The_Ozzman_Cometh wrote:FT: 3-1. A Christmas cracker! Four goals, two red cards and three much-needed points for Darlington. Styche (2) and Thompson the DFC scorers.

Tommy Wright’s first win as Quakers manager at the seventh attempt.

Couldn't be there today. Well done Lads and coaching staff we can build from this.

A Christmas cracker alright..great result.

Enjoyed that , best Darlo performance for a while, a strong back 4 a hard working midfield and striker who can score
That's all we need TW keep it up.

Credit where it's due. Well done TW and the players

Anyone know why styche went off? He's looking like a very important player for us.

Went off injured. Took a knock on his ankle in the first half hopefully it was only precautionary.

Yep, got that, understood that, recognised the formation and it was obvious the players did too and felt comfortable in their roles. More of the same please TW because if we'd been set up like that on Saturday we'd have seen off Gainsborough. Heaton deserves special mention because he was superb all game. There were the signs of the progress that we all wanted to see against a good side with energy and movement and a real goal threat.

Well, that was unexpected. Good performance against a surprisingly average, and very dirty, Harrogate side. Defence looked much improved, with Heaton standing out but all 4 had good games. Plenty of hard work and determination from the midfield, and Styche is what we've lacked all season. Hope his injury isn't too serious, as when he went off we struggled to keep the ball up front.

You could sense the relief in the players and fans at full time. Still think we'll be doing well to get much out of the next 3 games, but more of what we saw today and we'll be OK.

Pleased for Wright and White to get that 1st win too.

al_quaker wrote: Still think we'll be doing well to get much out of the next 3 games, but more of what we saw today and we'll be OK.

Pleased for Wright and White to get that 1st win too.

The first of those is against the team we have just beaten. The next is against York City against whom our team will be well fired up for obvious reasons. Gray cannot lose this game, it will be like a cup game for him and we know how well his teams do in cups. The third is Salford where the wheels have started to fall off after successive defeats. A guaranteed 9 points.

Dirty, diving, desperate Harrogate Town.

They got a surprise didn't they. Hacking down our players, hauling our goal keeper to the ground and diving in the box - surely they can play better than that?

This result didn't really surprise me as I thought it was coming - well done to everyone involved, especially our young goal keeper who was brilliant, and reminded me of Dean Gerken - who played a few games for us about 8 years ago.

Credit where it's due. TW and AW set us up perfectly today.

The back 4 did their jobs to a man. Every one of them deserves credit, but as with those around me, thought Josh Heaton put in a great performance. Won every header. Played the ball very safe and distributed very well. The keeper did okay. He was brave in his decision making. But I thought he was a bit weak flapping at a few crosses.

Thought Turnbull and Wheatley were workman like. Did their jobs well. Got back into our shape quickly and defended the centre of pitch well. Thommo was good again. Gillies and Syers didn't have the best of games.

Styche was brilliant. Mobile strong and a real instinct to score goals. He will be key to the rest of the season. Saunders ran we when he came on and showed great desire to win the penalty. It was noticable how we dropped back when Styche went off the pitch and couldn't make the ball stick up top.

Set us up brilliantly for the game. We're fully capable of reproducing that result. Got to go there in the new year knowing we are under their skin. A draw would be a good result. But a win could set us up brilliantly to put a run of results together.

Wright obviously changed the game plan for today and it worked. We sat very deep, defenders were disciplined, and we looked to get the ball forward quickly. Plenty of long balls with far less emphasis on passing for the sake of it. Did what we are good it. A pragmatic approach and just what we needed.

Very good result and overall we deserved it. They were on top in the second half until the sending off and after Styche went off I thought 3-2 looked the likeliest score.

I thought Collins was superb at right back. A far smarter footballer than brown who looked out of his depth there two or three divisions ago.

Our passing was poor on the break with a lot of possession wasted when under pressure, otherwise can't fault anyone.

Saunders looks a lot like a young Greg Blundell though.

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Careful Spyman. Gary Brown and Greg Blundell are players who always give 110% and run their socks off you are bordering on questioning the value of that in your post.

quakerste wrote:Went off injured. Took a knock on his ankle in the first half hopefully it was only precautionary.

It didn't look too bad, went for a cool down near the end. I was stood near the home dugout and when we went close to scoring a third near the end he was the only one on the bench who was standing, encouraging our players to score, great attitude.

Sounds like saunders' is the worst one as he had to go to hospital.

Having not been able to get to a match for several weeks I sort of went along to see how bad we'd got and expecting a pasting. Instead of which I thought we were rather good and I rated our keeper as excellent. A team huddle before kick off looked promising and then we got plenty of effort and determination - not relegation stuff at all IMO. Funny sometimes how we all see it different ways. They couldn't cope with Styche at all.

Collins was superb at right back and Heaton deservedly got man of the match winning everything in the air and on the ground. Heaton looks a great addition to the squad. Thought Talbot had a very good game and made some crucial challenges. His confidence at crosses must have instilled confidence into the defence.

Feethams 1966 wrote:Having not been able to get to a match for several weeks I sort of went along to see how bad we'd got and expecting a pasting. Instead of which I thought we were rather good and I rated our keeper as excellent. A team huddle before kick off looked promising and then we got plenty of effort and determination - not relegation stuff at all IMO. Funny sometimes how we all see it different ways. They couldn't cope with Styche at all.

The final score was 3-1 by the way. You missed it last time we played Harrogate so just making sure.

First red card was a definite.
Late...
Over the top...
Both feet off the ground.
Had to go.

As has been mentioned, great performances from Talbot, Collins and Heaton in particular, but credit where its due - Scott at L.B showing why he's still good value even if only as a squad player

DARLO333 wrote:What are the temporary seats that DFR are referring to ?

Instead of commentating from the balcony as we normally do we were sat at the back of the seated stand as hospitality was full to bursting today. So our vantage point was "temporary" - but if it brings results like this we might have to stay there full time!

Thought all the back 4 were excellent, Heaton was superb alongside Gary Brown, Leon added strength and Dom Collins slotted in very well at RB.Really like the young keeper who gave confidence to the defencelessness and Styche and Thommo were excellent.The main thing for me was the 433 formation with 2 midfielder protecting the back 4, the remaining midfielder supporting the front 3.Fully deserved this win against a full time squad backed by a wealthy owner and we more than matched them for fitness.We have one of the best strikers in the league in Reece Styche and the one of the best prospects in the league in Josh Heaton, think most Darlo fans are buzzing with the graft those lads put in today.Up the Quakers.

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I was a tad disappointed when Beck got booed when he came on late in the game, he deserved a better reception than that.