Darlington opened the game against table toppers Gateshead badly allowing the home team to take an early lead and the honours especially in the first twenty minutes.
In that time Gateshead forged a 16-0 lead and looked like running away with the game when Steve Taylor was sin binned for holding back a Gateshead player without the ball.
Gateshead opened the scoring with a penalty inside five minutes followed by a try by their fullback from an attack deep in their own half. The scoreboard soon ticked over again for Gateshead when their winger latched onto a well placed kick and dashed over the Darlington line for another try.
Darlington were at last getting back into the game with a combination of excellent lineouts, driving mauls and tighter midfield defence when Joe Oselton was binned. Gateshead stroked over the penalty to increase their lead.
Being reduced to fourteen men did not stop Darlington keeping the pressure on and they were duly rewarded with a penalty for not rolling away from the ball, Nick Baldwin putting the ball between the uprights.
Just before half time Joe returned to the fray and from a lineout close to the Gateshead line Andy Hodgkins was driven over from the resulting driving maul, conversion missed. It was now Gateshead’s turn to have a player binned when there number 8 was yellow carded for repeated infringements around the maul.
Into the second half and Darlington had the bit between their teeth as they took a succession of lineout and scrummage ball and driving it on through their forwards.
Richard Snowball, Andy Hodgkins and Col Rogers were immense in the back row and snuffed out any threat from Gateshead around the fringes. Marcus Connew bottled up any threat from his opposite number around the tight and the breakdown.
As the pressure began to tell Andrew Pugh split the home defence and seared through the opposition to score a try, conversion missed.
From the kick off Darlington made steady progress into the Gateshead half and after a number of line outs drove Joe Hargreaves over the line to score, Nick Baldwin converting. Joe has continued to improve since making the first team and makes a major contribution in both the loose and the tight.
For the remainder of the game Darlington had the lion’s share of the ball with Snowy and Steve excelling in the line out and the pack as a whole giving their opposite numbers a torrid time. Rob Goddard was in his element and was in the thick of things throughout. The ‘raging bulls’ of Bill Smith and Joe Oselton making huge inroads into the Gateshead pack.
With this in mind it seemed to be a strange decision by Darlington to kick for goal instead of putting the ball in the corner and looking to catch and drive for a try that would have not only secured a bonus point for Darlington but also deprived Gateshead of the bonus point for a close loss. The decision to kick looked even stranger when the penalty attempt sailed wide of the posts.
Darlington hemmed Gateshead in their own 22 for the last five minutes of the game to run out winners 16-20.
It is easy to see why Gateshead have won all their other games this season with an exciting back line, solid defence and useful pack.
For Darlington to come back from 16-0 down to win the game 16-20 would be seen by many supporters to be an excellent result which bearing last season in mind it probably was. On the other hand Darlington could have easily collected five points and Gateshead none to leave the destiny of the league title out of Gateshead’s hands. When Darlington had most of the ball in the second half it seems odd they did not score in the last twenty nine minutes of the game. Hopefully Darlington will not become the only side to beat Gateshead twice this season and not win the league! Food for thought!