Darlington 4 Exeter City 0

Saturday 22 September 2001

Noel Blake’s last game in charge.

By Gary Stoddart Sports Writer 


DARLINGTON'S statistics from the last two games make happy reading: scored seven, none conceded and six points from six. They're in fine form, as Noel Blake found to his cost. Exeter were sent on the long trip home after a sound beating at Feethams, although Darlington never quite reached top gear.

Noel Blake yesterday vacated his position by mutual consent with his side bottom of the table, having won once this season and conceded 25 goals in nine games. It was always going to be a tall order for Gary Bennett's side to repeat the form shown in the performance against Leyton Orient last Tuesday, but it is a measure of the quality this season that they managed to score four without reply, despite not quite meeting the new expectation levels. Quakers couldn't expect to be awarded three points for just turning up. Meetings with Lincoln, Carlisle and Torquay have proved that sides residing close to the relegation trapdoor can cause upsets unless they're dealt with professionally. And that's how Darlington earned maximum points. They never gave the Grecians a glimpse of victory. Indeed, Quakers' solid defending meant Exeter rarely ventured into Andy Collett's penalty area. Assistant manager Mick Tait was a satisfied man, but admitted Darlington were not completely at ease until they scored a second.

Quakers opened the scoring with their quickest goal of the season when Richard Hodgson netted his first of the season in the fifth minute. But the remainder of the first half was a tepid affair as both sides failed to mount any sustained pressure. Satisfied Quakers were in com- mand while Exeter did little to suggest they were able to wres tle their hosts from the driving seat, "We played great football on Tuesday and we even said to the players before the game that, they're never going to reach that standard again and we just had to get as close to that standard as possible and we'd win," said Tait. "It's great to get an early goal but you're still anxious. It some times takes a bit of an edge off the way you're playing but once the second goes in you know pretty much you've won the game. "I was saying to Gary all the way through the first half 'we need another goal here, to settle the lads down because they're anxious." Hodgson tapped home from close range in the fifth minute, but creator Danny Mellanby did all the hard work as he took two Exeter defenders out of the game with a clever turn deep in the box before laying the goal on a plate for Hodgson. Instead of signalling a barrage of Darlington attacks, 30 minutes passed without incident as both sides failed to stamp their authority on the game. Brian Atkinson, continuing his good form from the Orient game, provided a spark when he cleverly took the ball past a defender before slipping it through to Mel- lanby but his shot went wide. The next ten minutes saw each side create opportunities. Mellanby put a free header over the bar after a pin-point Mark Con- very cross, Mark Ford almost cre- ated a second goal but Barry Conlon couldn't meet his low cross while Exeter had their first shot on target. Sean McCarthy, carrying a few extra pounds since his heyday in the First Division with Bradford, won an aerial duel before turning on the edge of the area to warm Collett's finger tips with a low shot. Alex Watson provided the second half's first piece of entertainment as he found himself the butt of a needless FA directive. Watson required treatment after going down injured when bring ing down the advancing Atkinson, but once a stretcher had arrived he declared himself fit to continue playing, until the referee ordered otherwise. The defender was told to lie down on the stretcher before being carried to the edge of the pitch from where he promptly ran back onto the pitch. Exeter were almost gifted a bizarre leveller when Conlon's clearance from a corner rebounded off Watson but Collett was alert enough to tip over. The second goal, which finally arrived just after the hour, was claimed by both Mellanby and Mark Convery but a post-match dressing room debate resolved the issue with the former being awarded the strike. Arriving in the box from a Hodgson corner, Conlon flicked the ball on to Convery whose ef fort was turned in from close range by Mellanby, who deserved a goal for his efforts in the previ- ous games in which he'd not got on the scoresheet.

But there was no debating the scorer of the third five minutes later as Mellanby fired past the advancing keeper The ex-Bishop Auckland forward latched on to a long ball, shrugged off the attentions of Dylan Kerr and Graeme Power blatantly tugging at Mellanby's shirt as the Newton Aycliffe-born youngster, who last week vowed he'd soon end his five- game goal drought, notched his second of the game and fourth of the season. Substitute Cheriff Diallo, who isn't paid a wage by Exeter as he attempts to earn a contract at the other St James' Park, summed up the visitors' day when he managed the unenviable feat of kneeing himself in the head when at- tempting an acrobatic overhead kick. Their misery was compounded when, for the second successive game, Darlington capitialised on a defensive mix-up to score the final goal of the game. Ford tapped home from inside the Exeter penalty area after van Heusden's clearance rebounded off Kerr. And a minute from time, any hope the visitors had of grabbing a consolation strike was extin guished when Darlington's first- choice keeper made another entry in the Andy Collett book of 'Saves I'd No Right To Make spectacularly saving on the goal-line from Diallo's point-blank header.

Match Facts 

Goals: Hodgson (5mins, 1-0); Mellanby (62, 2-0; 67, 3-0); Ford (82, 4-0).

Referee: Mike Pike (Barrow)
Attendance: 4,039

DARLINGTONy (4-4-2):
Collett 7; Betts 6, Liddle 7, Jeannin 6, Heckingbottom 7; Convery 7 (Harper, 75), Ford 8, Atkinson 8, Hodgson 7 (Brumwell, 75), MELLANBY 8, Conlon 7.

Subs not used: van der Geest (gk). Marcelle, Jackson.

EXETER CITY (3-5-2): van Heusden 5; Watson 6, Curran 6, Power 6; Burrows 6 (Diallo 6, 66), Barlow 6, Breslan 6, ROBERTS 6, Kerr 5; Flack 5 (Birch 71), McCarthy 6.

Subs not used: Gregg (gk), McConnell, Ampadu.