Kelly joined Darlington on an initial month’s loan last October, but his time with Quakers has gradually been extended to the end of the season.
The 21-year-old winger scored his fifth goal of the campaign in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Chorley, and feels his time at Blackwell Meadows has enabled him to improve parts of his game that were not really being addressed in Sunderland’s Under-21s ranks.
“At Sunderland, with the Under-21s, it’s not really a competitive league,” said Kelly, whose solitary senior appearance for the Black Cats came as a second-half substitute in a Carabao Cup first-round defeat to Sheffield Wednesday at the start of the 2022-23 season. “Whereas here, you come into the changing room and the lads are needing to win.
“It’s completely different, and the defensive side of things has helped me so much with my game. I’ve not really come here to get the ball down and play because not many people in this league do that. But it’s the other side of the game that I have to learn to be able to push to the next level.”
Kelly spent time in the youth ranks for Manchester City and Salford City prior to joining Sunderland and signing his first professional contract with the Black Cats in the summer of 2022.
READ MORE:
His initial two-year deal with the Black Cats was extended by another 12 months, and Sunderland officials will make a further decision on his future this summer. Whatever happens, Kelly is confident he has benefited from his time in National League North, with Tuesday night’s battle against Chorley highlighting the shift in style he has had to come to terms with.
“It was the type of game where I learn the most,” he said. “In my game, I’m not really a defensive player at all. I don’t really have a defensive bone in my body, but when you come to these games, you’ve got to do it.
“There’s no excuse but to do it. It’s very different to what I was doing at Sunderland. With Sunderland, we’re used to playing on decent pitches where we can play and pop it around. When it comes to here, you’ve got no chance of doing that.”
Tuesday’s draw has left Darlington seven points adrift of the play-off places with six games remaining ahead of Saturday’s trip to Warrington Town.
“If we keep playing like we did (against Chorley), then we’ve got a good chance of winning the next few games,” said Kelly, in an interview on Darlington’s official YouTube channel.
“Hopefully, that’ll mean we can push for the play-offs. With the last two results, we should really have won both games, but the game’s the game and I guess you can’t win them all.”
