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Despair at Darlo

17/12/2002

RU: Darlington 50 Macclesfield 16

Macclesfield were taken apart by a hungry and skilful Darlington side.

The omens were not good from the outset, when Matt Brown missed the team bus and Steve Mannion received a cut ear in the first tackle of the game.

As the game progressed, things went from bad to worse.

However, the two sides were evenly matched for 35 minutes.

It could have gone either way, with the score at 9-6 in Darlington's favour at that stage.

A worrying trend during this period was the high number of penalties being awarded, particularly against Macclesfield.

Maybe the Blues failed to take heed of the referee's requirements, but the following five minutes altered the whole shape of the game, and effectively killed it as a contest.

Captain Iain Taylor was sin-binned after questioning a penalty award. Brother Dave came on as the front row replacement and Tim Kerr left the field.

Within two minutes, Dave was ordered to the sin-bin for another technical offence, reducing Macc to 13 players.

Darlington made the most of their numerical advantage and scored a pushover try.

This was followed by the most bizarre try of the afternoon.

Nearly all of the spectators saw a knock-on by the Darlington wing, but the match official failed to blow his whistle.

The ball was dribbled over the line and the try awarded, leaving Macc with a 19-6 deficit at half time.

This 'off day' continued for the Blues in the second half.

They were unable to lift themselves and failed to compete as an effective unit for much of the half.

Too many first up tackles were being missed and there was a lack of support for any breaks that did come their way.

They became ragged and frayed at the edges.

The net result was that Darlington opened the game up and used all their skills to run in a further five tries, practically at will.

By the 65th minute, they had 50 points on the board and looked likely to add to that.

Either they took their foot off the throttle, became tired, or Macc managed to drag themselves together to regain some pride for the remaining 15 minutes. We will opt for the latter.

The Blues began to make inroads into the Darlington defence, with Neil Hull and Gary Bell the most effective.

Bell scored to put Macc into double figures, and Ian Lear scorched through to score a well deserved try after 39 minutes of the second half, to make the final score 50-16.

This result is a severe blow to Macc's hopes of promotion at the end of the season.

All games will now need to be won if they are to figure with the other contenders.

They will need to draw on all their reserves of experience and character to overcome the bitter disappointment of Saturday's defeat.

Coaches Ian Gittins and Steve Rule, together with captain Taylor, will do everything that is needed for next week's game against West Hartlepool.