Darlington Boss says they were unlucky and....

...Darlington unlucky says boss

Darlington bowed out of the FA Cup at the first round stage thanks to a lack of goals in a frustrating encounter against Barnsley at Oakwell. The League two side looked like they would be in real trouble after the home side opened the scoring after just five minutes through a chipped effort by Hayes. However the higher division side failed to push home their advantage and Darlington could have equalised at the end of the first half when Wainwright hit the crossbar.

Quakers again started slowly in the second half but came back into it and should have had a penalty when Sodje was fouled in the area. Quakers then bought on N dumbu-Nsungu after the hour mark and he forced the Barnsley keeper into an excellent stop before stabbing the ball onto the post after a goalmouth scramble. Speaking after the game manager David Hodgson felt his side did very well for the majority of the game and had no complaints with the efforts of his side.

“I thought we did exceptionally well for one hour of the ninety minute game. We got caught cold in the first five or six minutes which then gives you a mountain to climb. But as I said on the radio there I felt that we virtually climbed to the top of the mountain without getting the rewards by touching the top of it,” said Hodgson. “We haven’t gone out in the manner at times which we have done. We have gone out tonight with a very good performance both in terms of commitment and in terms of football as well.”

Darlington’s luck really hasn’t been in of late however some fans will be unhappy by the formation Quakers adopted for much of the game. The Darlington manager explained that the 4-5-1 system they used was designed to frustrate the home fans before switching later in the game. The manager conceded however that his side really do need a forward.

“We were unlucky,” said Hodgson. “We’ve hit the cross bar and hit the post. We came with a shape and a system which was hopefully going to silence them. We knew the crowd was going to be poor so we knew it was always going to be edgy and we came hoping to get the two wide men close to Sodje. In all due respects to Sodje he didn’t get involved in the first fifteen minutes, he didn’t win anything in the air to give us that opportunity. We knew if we could get on top of the game we would change the system to try and upset them and go and win it for us. Even before we made the substitution I felt we were on top of the game because it rolled on from the first half. We just couldn’t find that killer touch to get the ball in the back of the net.”

Added on 5th November 2005

 

'We were unlucky'

Is that based on the fact they had about 3 shots on goal in 90 minutes?

Oh, I forgot, they hit the post. Well they definitely deserved a draw then.

In the second half we had a back four with an average height of about 5'8, yet their long balls still caused us very few problems. They could have been 4 down at half time, gi up moaning David.

 

"Darlington could have equalised at the end of the first half when Wainwright hit the crossbar." - That would be the one which everyone but the ref and linesman knew was clearly offside

"should have had a penalty when Sodje was fouled in the area." - Most blatant dive I think I've seen - we were pissing ourselves laughing that they could even consider appealing for a penalty.

 

http://media.rivals.net/media/jpg/2005110600100955.jpg

Sodje's 'dive'!

And how can you say we didn't cause you any problems in the air second half? We won nearly every flick on and if it wasn't for your wing backs resorting to chopping down our wingers on a couple of occasions we may well have had a couple more chances.

Fair play though, you looked a decent team to start off with. As usual our defence was shaky and couldn't contain your strikers' pace. You should have had a few more early on in the second half but you didn't take your chances.

 

I thought Darlo played really well and I think you could easily hold your own in Div 1.
The dive was a bit comical though ff (Y)

 

Thanks for that, I thought we made a good account of ourselves, too but none of your lot appear to agree. Fair play though, we're all entitled to our own opinion.

 

Where did I say you didn't cause us any problems?

 

Sorry, I was referring to Journo Tyke who said we caused you very few problems in the air.

 

I was impressed with Darlington and if they'd got a replay, we couldn't really have argued- just glad we've got through and got a home tie.

 

That photo shows there was no foul, thanks for clearing it up!

 

Remind me how many headers on goal you had. I can't remember any.

 

Yes, Sodje's DIVE

Photo shows two players nowhere near each other. Never a foul in a million years.
Having said that you played well and deserved a draw. Good luck for the season.

 

I took a lad from work who is a darlington fan , he thought they were pretty poor and said that it was the worst performance that he had seen. He also said that that little peacock bloke played the worst game he had ever had for darlington

 

He obviously hasn't seen many Darlo games then! ff

Peacock has been quiet of late, agree with him on that.

 

RE: Yes, Sodje's DIVE

Good luck to you all the same(Y)

 

he goes to most games home and away