Clinical Darwen punishes sloppy Daisy Hill to seal a big win

After a goalless first half, former Daisy man Connor Hughes scored twice in the space of twelve minutes in the second half, either side of a Jack Foster strike, to put Darwen in charge.

Although debutant Liam Sheppard pulled a goal back for Daisy five minutes from time, Foster struck his second of the afternoon in the final minute to complete the victory for the home side.

Daisy coach Lewis Woodcock made no bones about it in his analysis after the match.

“I think the biggest emotion is annoyance with the performance,” he said. “The first half was okay, Darwen were perhaps the slightly better team, but they didn't cause us any problems.

“We changed a few things at half-time because we had defended well but weren't really creating much, so we decided to give it a try.

“But in the second half we came out and we were a different team. They put their foot on the accelerator, we gave away sloppy goals and we fell apart a bit.

“We missed a good chance to make it 1-0 and a few minutes later they scored a second one. We must seize those opportunities when they arise. They took their chances and were more clinical than us.

“We had a period in the last five to ten minutes, but we expected that for the whole second half.

“We had the quality of player on the pitch to match them, the difference was we didn't have that clinical edge all over the pitch. We were sloppy, there was poor communication and we didn't have the desire you need.

“It's fair game for Connor Hughes. Both his goals were very good, but we made it too easy for him and that is not good enough. You can't afford to give a player of Connor's quality the kind of time he had on the edge of the penalty area.

“Darwen had more heart and more desire, and when you don't perform as a team at this level you get punished for it.

“We deserved to lose thanks to that performance in the second half. It's not often that we come off the field this season saying the other team deserved the win, but that was the case today.”

It was a match that took some time to come to life, and chances were few and far between on both sides in the first half.

In the fifth minute, late play at Daisy's back allowed Darwen's Fenton Reeves to score freely on target, but his weak shot was easily collected by keeper Morgan Newns.

Daisy's only effort of note came just after the half hour mark when Prince Haywood's shot from the edge of the penalty area was cleared safely by Darwen keeper James Aspinall.

A goalless first 45 minutes was a good reflection of the flow of the game, and Daisy looked to freshen up the line-up by making two substitutions at half-time, with Kyle Whittaker and Luke Nicholls replacing Luke Roscoe and Lucas Robinson.

But it was Darwen who broke the deadlock on 55 minutes, as Hughes picked up the ball on the left side of the penalty area and smashed a shot past Newns into the top corner.

Just after the hour mark, Daisy came close to an equalizer when Nicholls collected a through ball and rounded Darwen keeper Aspinall, but went wide before his effort on target was cleared.

Within two minutes Darwen had doubled their lead, with Hughes becoming the provider to set up Foster, who slid in to send the ball past Newns.

Five minutes later, Hughes struck again, grabbing his second of the afternoon with a similar strike to his first goal, this time receiving a pass from Bruno Severino before burying a shot past Newns.

Daisy kept going and on 70 minutes Nicholls was denied by a great blocking save from Aspinall from close range.

But with five minutes to go, a neat through ball from Nicholls allowed fellow substitute Sheppard to pull a goal back for Daisy with a cool finish from ten yards.

While Daisy pushed forward as the match drew to a close, they were always vulnerable to the counter-attack, and in the final minute, after an attack had been broken up, a long ball forward sent Darwen substitute Foster clear on goal, and he finished . a good afternoon for his side as he beat Newns with a low shot for his second of the match.

Daisy are back in action in the North West Counties League First Division North on Saturday when they travel to West Yorkshire to take on Route One Rovers.