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1/3/2008 VODKAT LEAGUE DIVISION 2 DARWEN 1 CASTLETON GABRIELS 1

This game never looked likely to be as entertaining as the seven goal thriller in the reverse fixture back in November, as both teams struggled to cope with the blustery wind conditions and heavy pitch. As Wayne Watkins was unavailable, Rob Philps was again in charge of the team. Captaincy of the side was handed to John Dickinson, due to the absence of Matt Anderton through injury.

On ten minutes, Reece Rowinski ran onto a pass over the visitor’s defence, but had difficulty controlling of the ball, enabling defenders to get back to challenge enough to force a weak shot.

Five minutes later, Darwen’s defence pushed up too far, enabling Evans and Barrington to get clear to chase a lofted pass. Luckily, keeper Joe Darwin had seen the danger, and rushing from goal just beat the forwards to the ball.

Two Darwen fee kicks caused some panic in the Castleton box, but defenders managed to deal with both situations before any real danger occurred, and a blast from twenty five yards by Reece Rowinski cleared the bar.

On the half hour, Barrington once more beat the Darwen offside trap and raced clear. Joe Darwin again sprinted from goal, and blocked the forward’s advance enough for the home defenders to put the ball to safety. The Salmoners were playing a dangerous game of defending high on the field, trying to put pressure on Castleton, and with five minutes to go, the visitors broke through again, as Evans went clear with only the Darwen keeper to beat. As Evans hesitated inside the area, Darwin came out to smother the shot, injuring himself in the process, but saving a certain goal.

On forty three minutes, a well hit free kick from the right edge of the area by Barrington just cleared the Darwen bar.

Just before half time, the home side came close to opening the scoring. A Reece Rowinski strike was blocked by defenders, and then some interplay between Rowinski and Paul Walker ended with Walker’s low shot beating both Canning in goal and the left post.

Half Time: Darwen 0 Castleton Gabriels 0

The first shot on goal in the second half saw Richmond Botchey put the ball through the legs of a Castleton defender, but Canning in goal sighted the shot in time to save it.

Twenty minutes into the half, Castleton went in front. Barrington ran down the left and put an angled drive towards the top left hand corner of the goal, which Joe Darwin managed to palm away for a corner. From the corner, an Evans strike was cleared off the line by Richmond Botchey, but Darwen failed to clear the danger as the ball reached Barrington on the edge of the box. His low shot found the bottom left hand corner.

The home side had a chance to equalise a minute later. Paul Walker burst down the left, beating his marker, and pulled a cross back to the edge of the area to Sam Holt. His strike was still rising as it went over the bar.

On seventy minutes, the visitors had a great chance to increase their lead when Eastman went on a mazy run beating two defenders, and sliding a ball past the outrushing Darwen keeper, only to see his effort go agonisingly past the right post.

Ten minutes later, Joe Darwin had to be alert again as the home defence were caught as they pushed for an equaliser, enabling Evans to get a run on goal. The Darwen keeper managed to block the forward’s progress.

The visitors had a another opportunity to seal the game with five minutes to go, but the finish by Pete Jones from a Eastman pass flashed by the post.

Into injury time, it looked like a defeat for Darwen, but they were thrown a lifeline when a Reece Rowinski drive was handled by Cree in the area. The referee awarded the home side a penalty, which was coolly put away by Matt Haworth. This proved to be the final action of the game, as the official blew for full time immediately after the restart.

Full Time: Darwen 1 Castleton Gabriels 1

ATTENDANCE: N/A

GOALS:

Castleton Gabriels: Barrington (66)
Darwen: Haworth (90+3)

MAN OF THE MATCH:

Castleton Gabriels: Nathan Eastman
Darwen: Reece Rowinski

TEAMS:

Castleton Gabriels
1. Mark Canning
2. Louie Edwards
3. Andrew Entwistle
4. James Greenhalgh
5. Adam Cree
6. Steve McCann (Capt.)
7. Mark Baxendale
8. Nathan Eastman
9. Kristian Evans
10. Warren Edwards
11. Brad Barrington
12. John Jones (replaced Baxendale, 63 minutes)
14. Pete Jones (replaced John Jones, 70 minutes)
15. James Covitt (replaced Edwards, 63 minutes)

Darwen
1. Joe Darwin
2. John Dickinson (Capt.)
3. Richmond Botchey
4. Chris Pearson
5. Paul Walker
6. Doug Ward
7. Jordan Hulme
8. Sam Holt
9. Reece Rowinski
10. Ashley Reece
11. Courtney Crooks
12. Lewis Barlow (replaced Reece, 70 minutes)
14. Matt Haworth (Replaced Ward, 61 minutes)
17. Matthew Williams (replaced Holt, 80 minutes)

Assistant manager Rob Philps comments:
We had a young team out today, and their side was big and physical, and so we tried to play to our strengths which were to get the ball as wide as possible, and as high as possible, but shot ourselves in the foot by not defending correctly and giving them several good opportunities to score in the first half. Poor defending gifted them the goal in the second half.
It was hard graft today. The pitch was very heavy, and as the rain came down it became very boggy, but luckily the lads pulled it out of the bag with a penalty in injury time.
We have the luxury of Richmond Botchey, who is a very pacy player, and he does defend very deep, so he does play the opposition onside once or twice. We do tend to play the game as high as possible, and it isn’t always an advantage, as you’ll get big centre forwards, who will knock the ball down, and they had a nipper winger there today, who was getting round the back.
I thought we got our just rewards at the end, as we did dominate for long periods of the game, then we got a penalty, which I thought was a penalty.
Joe Darwin kept us in the game with some absolutely amazing saves. He had to come out fast to kick the ball clear once or twice, but this is one of Joe’s strengths.
We had a young team out there today, the side is very young compared with the rest of the teams in this league, but they did me proud out there today. I was disappointed with the result as we should have won. We should have created more opportunities. Physically, they were stronger, but we had the ability, the skill, and the fitness to beat them.