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22-year-old defender Alex Storey has signed until the end of the 2021/22 National League North season. Storey has made 38 appearances for the Quakers, scoring twice. The defender's commitment adds to a list of players that have chosen to remain at the club for next season. Joe Wheatley, Luke Charman, Jarrett Rivers, Ben Hedley and Jamie Holmes have all extended their deals at Blackwell Meadows while Manager Alun Armstrong said: "Alex was just getting back to his best when the season was halted. "We know he's got the ability and this year is a big year for him to kick on." Darlington have also been busy on the transfer front this week.
Darren Holloway signs new deal at Darlington (Andy Futers Photography) Darlington's assistant manager Darren Holloway has extended his stay at the club for a third season after putting pen-to-paper on a new deal. The former Sunderland, Carlisle and Bradford defender has spent two years in the dugout with the Quakers alongside manager Alun Armstrong. The news follows a raft of contract extensions at the club as the squad takes shape for the 2021/22 National League North season. Joe Wheatley, Luke Charman, Jarrett Rivers, Ben Hedley and Jamie Holmes have all extended their deals at Blackwell Meadows. A number of Quakers players have departed to sign for fellow National League North sides Blyth Spartans and Gateshead including Adam Campbell and Dan Maguire while veteran defender Nicky Hunt has been released.
A FIRST-HALF goal by skipper Will Hatfield put Darlington into the last 16 of the Buildbase FA Trophy. Quakers were the more enterprising of the two sides in the first half, with Erico Sousa a handful on the left. Alex Storey clipped the top of the bar with a header, and Dan Maguire had a shot charged down on the six-yard line after he was set up by Sousa. Quakers took a deserved lead just on half-time when Hatfield picked the ball up in midfield, ran into the area, and as the defence stood back, he beat keeper Gerard Benfield with a low right-foot shot.
A FRUSTRATED Darlington were beaten by a second-half goal as they lost 1-0 to Farsley Celtic at the Citadel. For the second game running, they found it tough going in breaking down a home defence which had ten men behind the ball after they took the lead from a free-kick. Luke Charman, on his return to the side, went close with a header early on, but Quakers’ keeper Johnny Saltmer stopped his side from going behind after seven minutes when Paddy Lane broke clean through, but the keeper pushed him wide, and Lane instead set up Jimmy Spencer, who fired over the top.
DARLINGTON manager Alun Armstrong admits that getting a result at Spennymoor’s Brewery Field will be a tough ask in his side’s return local derby this afternoon. The sides drew 0-0 at Blackwell Meadows in a wind-spoilt game of very few chances on Boxing Day, and Armstrong knows that his team will be in for another tough game today. “We know that we’re going to have a difficult game, and getting a result will be a tough ask,” said Armstrong. “We had a good win on Monday against Blyth, but so did they at Gateshead. They’ll be full of confidence with that win, but we know what to expect after playing them last week. Having said that, they know what to expect from us. Hopefully, we won’t have to deal with a gale-force wind.”
Darlington ended 2020 in style by hitting bottom-of-the-table Blyth Spartans for six. They made light work of a team heading for relegation, leading 2-0 with only quarter of an hour gone and could have won by a greater margin, but there will be no complaints after this rout. The goals were shared by five players: Erico Sousa, Adam Campbell, Jarrett Rivers, Tyrone O’Neill (2) and Dan Maguire as Quakers recorded a long-awaited home league win. Not since January had they taken the points on home soil, but this win was not in doubt from the moment Sousa struck after ten minutes, and thereafter it was a matter of how many Alun Armstrong’s men would score.
DARLINGTON manager Alun Armstrong admitted his side were lucky as they scraped past AFC Telford United in a penalty shoot-out at Blackwell Meadows. Quakers were second best against a sharper visiting side who created many more of the chances in the game, but their will-to-win, especially when they were 2-1 down, got them through to this lunchtime’s FA Trophy third-round draw. Their hero was on-loan keeper Melvin Minter, who pulled off several good saves, stopped a penalty in normal time, and another in the shoot-out – the first time Quakers have claimed a spot-kicks victory in the Trophy. “It’s the first time since I’ve been here that we’ve won a game that we didn’t deserve to win,” he said. “It’s happened to us that we’ve played so well and lost before. Fatigue seemed to have set into our players. We had over a fortnight without a game, then two games in three days caught up with them.
DARLINGTON gained a morale-boosting win with a 2-0 FA Trophy victory over City of Liverpool to earn themselves a home tie on Saturday against Telford. Quakers ,though, should have made the game safe a lot earlier than they did, as they missed several good chances after Luke Charman gave them the lead. The Scousers almost took the lead on five minutes, when Dominic Reid hit a shot from the edge of the box that took a deflection and went just past the post, with keeper Melvin Minter, in goal instead of Johnny Saltmer, going the wrong way. Quakers responded with a right foot curler shot by Erico Sousa that flew just over the top corner.