Match Report

After their away win at Shelley, Darwen welcomes AFC Blackpool to the Anchor Ground. New signing Oliver Lombard started in goal for the Salmoners and Brandon Lonsdale made his first home start for the club.

Darwen conjured their first chance of the game within the first few minutes when Brayden Shaw found space on the edge of the area but his shot was parried wide by Blackpool goalkeeper, Daniel Hall.

It wasn’t long until Darwen found the breakthrough as on Nine minutes, Charlie Lloyd at the back post headed home a corner by Shaw. 1-0

In the Twentieth minute, the Salmoners doubled their advantage. Leon Creech was brought down in the area but a good use of the advantage rule by the referee, saw the ball bobble to Brandon Lonsdale who steadied himself and tucked the ball away into the bottom corner. 2-0

Darwen remained the dominant side but against the run of play in the Thirty-Seventh minute, the visitors pulled a goal back. Tyler Hallan got to a corner before Lombard and headed the ball into an empty net. 2-1

This setback didn’t affect the hosts as they pushed on to try and recover their two goal cushion. Chances before half time fell to Kit Lloyd and Gary Basterfield but the Mechanics managed to get into the break a solitary goal behind.

Darwen Boss, Kenny Langford not wanting to rest on his laurels made a triple substitution at the interval bringing on Chris Smalley, Chris Lynch and Mamudu Touray Touray. AFC Blackpool then enjoyed their best spell of the game with the only chance of note being a shot from Hallan that flashed over the crossbar.

With Twenty minutes to play, Darwen added to their tally. Former Blackpool winger Touray Touray found space just inside the area and executed a nice controlled finish that found the bottom corner past Hall. 3-1

Darwen soon pushed for a fourth as Leon Creech hit the post and Finley Devenney had a shot tipped over the bar by Hall. Resistance was futile though as in the Eighty-Seventh minute Creech was played through one-on-one and the Talisman finished superbly to put more breathing space between the sides. 4-1

Just two minutes later Creech doubled his tally for his Ninth goal of the campaign. He danced through the tired Blackpool defence and rounded off his tenacious and hardworking performance with a fine strike into the bottom corner of the net. 5-1.

The pain didn’t end there for the visitors. In stoppage time, Brandon Lonsdale pounced onto a defensive mistake and coolly slotted the ball past Hall to make it Six. 6-1

The victorious hosts were clapped off by the fans as ‘Seven Nation Army’ echoed around the Anchor Ground. Darwen now set their sights on three consecutive home games against table-toppers FC St Helens, Euxton Villa and NWCFL Premier Division outfit, Padiham.