Boltmakers back on top
AFC BENTLEY 1 FC DARLASTON 5
FC Darlaston returned to winning ways with a five goal hammering over landlords Bentley, but were made to battle all the way having conceded an early goal.
Bentley opened the scoring on seven minutes, when Darlaston’s John Hodder failed to keep control of a collected pass and Nathan Westwood took possession just inside the Darlaston half. He chipped the out of position keeper Aaron Morris from 40 yards.
It looked very much as if Darlaston would be going into the break empty handed. But everything changed in the final five minutes of the first half, when new signing Danny Mayne made his presence felt by scoring two goals within a two minute period.
The first came on 42 minutes, when Jack Arnold, despite being heavily marked drove a perfect cross from the left to the right and Mayne bought it down, turned his marker and fired the ball with precision into the corner of the net.
A minute later, with a Darlaston attack foiled and with the ball looking likely to run out of play, Adam Cole took it upon himself to rescue the ball and snatched it back into play and proceeded to cross the ball to hit man Mayne, who made no mistake to place the ball past keeper Clements.
The outcome of the game could have been a different story when 20 seconds into the second half Bentley’s Troy Hewitt found himself facing up to keeper Aaron Morris after pouncing onto a poor back pass but he wasted the opportunity of drawing level by firing high over the goal.
Following that, Darlaston didn’t look back. If the second goal had blown the wind out of Bentley’s sails then Aiden Blackham deflated them when he made it 3-1 with a 30 yard free kick on 65 minutes.
Darlaston made it 4-1 on 77 minutes, when Ash Walker laid the ball back to Jack Arnold who was desperate to beat keeper Clements and had moments earlier seen his shot pushed out for a corner. But on this occasion, Clements body blocked his effect only to witness his rebound fall to Patrick Burke who remained calm to fire the ball home.
Darlaston’s fifth was a joy to watch, Jack Arnold took possession in the Darlaston half fed the ball to Danny Mayne on the half way line and proceeded at pace to run into the Bentley half. Mayne then fed the young striker who beat the offside trap and on a solo run rounded keeper Clements to finally add his name to the score sheet, and in the process condemn the hosts to their heaviest home defeat of the season and return Darlaston to the top of the WMRL second division.