Tales From Darlington Part 3

By: Andrew Doherty
Date: 20/03/2005

THE teams reappeared for the second half in the developing stygian gloom, and Town once again started brightly with Prince Harry almost going clear. A through pass from the impressive Forbes on 52 minutes put Harry through again. Corner.

Another Harry effort followed, but this time his header went close. Shortly after the majestic Harry was pulled down outside the Darlo box, but nothing came of it. As the ball was hacked clear, the Darlo no 28 went flying in for a tackle on Forbes and got booked. All this pressure from Town had led to nothing. Inevitably, the game started to get scrappy. The crowd started to realise this. Hockless however remained creative (in a football, rather than a bun sense) and on 60 minutes got the ball through to Grits, who won a corner. Fleming almost managed to get Harry through, but Harry was adjudged to be offside. Town were starting to pick up again, with Pinault and Fleming floating dangerous balls in to try and break down the increasingly desperate Darlo defence. Darlo were now being reduced to the occasional dangerous counter-attack, and on 70 minutes, Town had Forbes to thank for a superbly timed tackle in the box as Darlo's no 18 threatened to score.

Straightaway the ball went back down the pitch, and on 72 minutes Town’s moment came. Pinault slotted an exquisite ball through to Reddy, who charged through the middle and was pulled down by the Darlo goalie in the box. Penalty to Town! The goalie was lucky to stay on the pitch as Grits stepped up and placed a perfectly executed penalty to the goalie’s right. 1-1, except that it wasn’t, because the referee decided otherwise and ordered that the kick was re-taken. Encroachment? No-one knew except the referee. Grits stepped up again, placed the ball to the right of the goalie, who shouldn’t have been on the pitch, and the shot was saved. Still 0-1, then. The crowd helpfully informed the referee that he was ‘something rude that I’m not allowed to say’, as Revis put it, and many other unpleasant and nasty things besides. The referee then decided to guarantee his popularity award and not only booked Fleming for a foul, but sent him off for dissent. By this stage, the referee had lost control of the game, his mind and everything else, and the mood of the crowd was ugly. None of this stopped some of those lovely Darlo supporters from being ejected by the dozen in the meantime, in spite of their team winning, lots of luck, and now numerical advantage. Town pressed on, but Pinault had dropped back so far that one of our best attacking options had gone. A misunderstanding on 80 minutes almost let Darlo in. The tannoy, which Humbo rightly observed had been the same for 35 years, cracked and gurgled angry noises as if it had come to life and was suffocating at the sight of this injustice. Good control from Harry again on 83 minutes was followed with a mazy run from Reddy and a low shot from Hockless, but nothing came of it. There was still plenty of determination from Town, and on 87 minutes Pinault swung in a corner which the goalie tipped over the bar. Darlo were understandably playing for time now. 5 minutes add-on time was announced, but seeing Whittle, who won the Humbo accolade of being ‘neither use nor ornament’, out of position on the left wing misplacing passes, prepared us for the inevitable. This was now desperate stuff of the kind we’ve seen many times before. And sure enough, the whistle went. 0-1. Eternal misery. The end of the world. And frankly, we’ve had it now. This result meant almost certain elimination of any hopes we had of making the play-offs. The referee had to be escorted off the pitch, such was his overwhelming popularity and new-found celebrity status in the Borough of Cleethorpes. The Darlo supporters rejoiced, at least those who hadn’t been chucked out.

Disappointing doesn’t cover it. The referee, who hadn’t been too bad up to the 70th minute other than occasional moments of pedantry, seemed to go into a trance-like state of megalomania and insanity, to the point where he seemed to lose control of the game. Being the sort of referee that he was, he would no doubt argue that he was upholding the laws of the game. Another way of looking at it is that from the moment the goalie tripped up Michael Reddy, Darlo were given an unfair advantage. I also find it distasteful and provocative when the referee moves the ball forward 10 yards for dissent, pacing it out in a way which indicated clearly how important he thought he was. I don’t like this rule, but it does tell you what sort of referee you’re dealing with. It is true to say also that we lost our self-discipline in the process, which was to some extent understandable, but the referee should be aware of this and seeking to calm things down rather than making the situation worse.

The other thing which left everyone incredulous was that Darlington had only one shot at goal all match. Our play was inventive and at times technically skilful, and we really didn’t deserve this result on the balance of play. This was the third time I’d seen us lose 0-1 at home this year, and the performance in this match was far better than the other two. At the end of the day, I didn’t expect us to make the play-offs, and now we won’t. This result probably won’t make any difference, but it’s disappointing nevertheless.

Revis and I said our farewells to Humbo, who along the way had confirmed what we had both suspected - people in North East Lincolnshire and are rough, ready and above all friendly, while people down south are generally just back-biting and miserable. You can’t say fairer than that. I can’t say from what I saw that I was that keen on the Darlington lot, many of whom fell into the yobbo category. We trooped mournfully down the Grimsby Road, passing Keith’s Ice Cream van on the way and calling into the Popular Takeaway for what I believe to be the best haddock in Cleethorpes in the most perfect batter, although I am prepared to try other outlets to be sure. We caught up the army of vans and Police officers as they marched the uncuddly and ejected Darlington munchkins back to Cleethorpes station. Credit is due to the Police for segregating them from the honest, law-abiding folk, and being helpful and courteous in doing it. This makes a pleasant change from the old days, when the Police tarred everyone with the same brush. We’d suffered enough already, without having to endure more hassle, so this was appreciated. The weather was grey in a typically Grimbarian way as we passed through the derelict docks and ate our tea. As ever, the trials of the football were forgotten as the attention turned to haddock and chips, before catching up on important news in the programme and the Grimsby Telegraph. And there’s always the next match, and our next outing to the Promised Land of North East Lincolnshire to look forward to.

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