Darlington 1 Southport 0 Match Report

Mar 22, 2022

A below par performance from Southport this evening with the 1-0 scoreline not a true reflection of the dominance of the home sides superiority.

Only superb keeping from Man Of The Match Cam Mason including a fantastic penalty save kept the scoreline down.

We thought we had scored as early as the 4th minute when a Dylan Vassallo corner was headed on to the bar by Anson (possibly it was a scramble) And at the time it looked like it had gone in but the Assistant Ref said not.

That was as good as it got in the first half as the home sides pace down the flanks was causing all sorts of problems,

It was no surprise when they took the lead through a long range effort from Jake Cassidy in the 33rd minute and went in to the break 1-0 to the good.

Darlington came out strongly in the second period and Mason was called into action on several occasions to keep the visitors in the game.

The closest Southport came to scoring was a tremendous free kick from Josh Hmami that was well saved by the home ‘keeper.

A couple of corners came to nothing and Darlington had the chance to extend the lead from the spot after the excellent Kevin Dos Santos went down in the box. It looked like a dive from our vantage point but the ref who had a good game in general thought otherwise. Justice was done as Mason pulled off a great save.

Southport did go forward with more purpose but rarely threatened the home goal and it was Darlington who looked the more likely to increase the lead.

The home sides Man Of The Match was the keeper Tommy Taylor which came as quite a surprise to me and most people around were I was sat as he had little to do and Dos Santos was in most people’s opinion the best player on the park.

No faulting the lads for effort but it ended in disappointment.

Thanks to everyone who travelled up this evening for your support.

We move on to Alfreton on Saturday.

Subs Woods and Munro for Watson & Hmami  and Newell for Vassallo

Att 1252

Southport MOTM Cam Mason