Alfreton Town 0 Darlington 3: Ben Hedley is unlikely Quakers goal hero

Alfreton Town 0 Darlington 3: Ben Hedley is unlikely Quakers goal hero



A visit to Alfreton always presents a unique challenge with the home side’s aerial threats, but Quakers snuffed them out completely, and took the points with three well-created second-half goals.

Manager Steve Watson said: “As delighted as I am with everything that happened at Alfreton, I didn’t think we were miles away in our first game against Chorley either. We prepared in the same way and tried to play in a similar way – it’s fine margins.

“I’m as happy with a clean sheet as I am with three goals. We’ve scored two goals in every game we’ve played so far in friendlies and in the league, but it’s not rocket science, we are creating more chances than we were last season. We were really solid without the ball and we made them work hard.

“We did a lot of things right in the first half, but we didn’t have anything to show for it. The message really was to keep doing the right things and trust the way we want to play.

“There were two fantastic strikes in the second half, and another goal down the side. We just had to trust the way we were doing things.

“I’m delighted with the performance. As gutted as I was when we lost to Chorley, I’m as delighted this week, but I try to keep things level.”

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Quakers’ tactics to stop Alfreton’s long-ball game worked a treat with the hosts creating just a couple of half-chances in the first half.

Instead, it was Alfreton keeper George Willis who was by far the busier keeper. After just four minutes, he pulled off a good save from Will McGowan’s left-foot shot after the midfielder had been played in by Cedric Main.

Quakers continued to slice their hosts open over the rest of the first half, but couldn’t get the breakthrough.

Scott Barrow fired a left-foot shot just wide from the edge of the box, then the keeper smothered a close-range effort from Barrow who had been set up by debutant Josh Scott.

After Alfreton’s Joseph Dodoo had a penalty shout turned down, the visitors nearly scored with an effort by Elliot Forbes and just on half-time Will Hatfield forced a diving save out of Willis from a free-kick.

Darlington keeper Pete Jameson made a good save from a Dodoo header at the start of the second half, but Quakers took control of the game when they opened the scoring after 52 minutes. McGowan caused havoc in the Alfreton box, had a shot deflected into the path of Hatfield, who squeezed the ball into the net from a tight angle.

A few minutes later, it was 2-0 with a goal that Hedley will remember for a long time. Cedric Main picked the ball up on the left, dribbled into the area, and pulled the ball back for the defender who hit a left-foot shot into the top-right corner of the net for his first goal in 167 league matches. His only other goal came in the Trophy against Alfreton three years ago.

And on 72 minutes it was all over, when McGowan gave Main a shooting chance, and even though Willis blocked his effort, the ball looped perfectly up in the air for Hatfield to volley into the top corner.

Quakers managed the game well after that, and had the luxury of bringing on new signing Dan Hopper from Carlisle, and Under-23s striker Matty Kirokiro.



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