Darlington provide welcome break


By Nathan Jackson
December 31 2005

Darlington visit Sincil Bank on New Years Eve and City will be looking forward not having a local derby again. City's last 2 games have seen 1 point and a very shocking performance at Grimsby, however City will go into the fixture against the inconsistant Quakers on the back of a tongue lashing

In typical City style, the two recent local derbies have turned out to be an ultimate anti-climax and the performance at Grimsby ranks up there with the worst under Keith Alexander and how we only lost by 3 goals is beyond, however, we get a small break from a local derby with the visit of Darlington. Although Darlington failed to score against the Imps last season, they showed enough to suggest that deserved a playoff place more than Northampton, however, their form this year has been less than thrilling and despite only being a few points off the playoffs, both teams (especially City) will have to improve rapidly.

Dean Keates returns from suspension, however, with Lee Beevers being injured in the first half at Grimsby, it could see Keith revert back to the rather more successful 4-3-3. Morgan is also still injured and Cryan should fit into this position. However, with the return of Keates, it means that Keith now has all 3 of his favoured midfielders available meaning that Foster will more than likely be relegated back to the bench, despite being the best player in the games against Boston and Grimsby. Unfortunatly, Asamoah will probably start

Who I think will start (Right to left)

Marriott

McAuley  Cyran   McCombe  Mayo

Kerr   Brown    Keates

Birch    Logan     Asamoah

 

Darlington haven't had the sort of impact they had last season. Along with Macclesfield and Southend, they were a surprise package having turned relegation candidates to promotion contenders, however, they failed the make the playoffs with City playing a major part in that fact. Not only did City lose to Northampton (the team who replaced Darlo in the playoffs) but the following week, had a goalless draw with Darlo and despite winning on the last day, Northampton's 3-0 win over Kidderminster meant that Darlo had to beat Cheltenham 8-1, something that obviously didn't happen.

Their season started relatively well despite an opening day 1-1 draw at Rushden and Diamonds. A professional 2-0 win over lowly Stockport was followed by a home defeat by Orient who maintained their 100% start. The main thing you'll notice in this review is that Darlington haven't won back to back games.....yet. Another Orient won as the away team at Darlo, Darlo won as the away team at Grimsby, winning by the same 1-0 score that Orient had beaten them by. They were also given a local derby in the Carling Cup but went out 3-1 at Hartlepool's Victoria Park. However, this was followed by a more unlikely result as they fought out a breath-taking 4-4 draw at Chester, however, it was definatly a case of 2 points dropped for Darlo as the hosts scored 2 injury time goals for one of the highest scoring games this season.

Things returned to normality a few days later when they followed up that unlikely draw, with a 2-1 win over Rochdale, however, that's where their decline starts. Although a draw against the then high flyers, Notts County, was viewed as a good result, it started a long run without a win. A frustrating 2-2 draw at Mansfield was compounded by a 2-1 defeat at home to Oxford. Another defeat came in a trip to Bristol Rovers before Boston took a point from the North East. A point at Northampton was considered a good result and then, against the other playoff semi-final loser, Macclesfield, Darlo record their first win in 7. Inconsistancy returned after a 1-0 defeat at Bury before Kidderminster continued their good form against Darlington by eliminating them from the LDV Vans at Aggbrough.

Darlington's home game against Cheltenham matched the same result as last year as the Quakers ran out 3-1 winners, however, this kicked off another set of bad results and a 1-0 defeat at Wrexham was followed by an FA Cup exit at Barnsley by the same scoreline. A respectable draw with then unbeaten Wycombe was followed by a disappointing 1-0 defeat at lowly Macclesfield. A repeat of the opening day came a week later with a 1-1 draw with Rushden before a 3-1 defeat at Shrewsbury. However, like most teams, Darlington then beat Stockport quite comfortably winning 3-0 at Edgeley Park. Last Saturday saw a respectable draw against in form Carlisle before defeating Barnet 2-1 on Wednesday night.

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