No repeat of Arena joy for Macclesfield

NATIONAL LEAGUE 1

in the game at half time, looking to have the first say after half time, but unfortunately the opposite was the case.

Darlington came out firing, with two quick fire tries straight after the break, firstly from a turnover in their own ’22 and a wide break, the pacey Radwan again the scorer, and then a punch in the stomach for Macclesfield when Tom Eaton’s wide pass was intercepted and in the next phase, Simon Uzokwe, whose work ethic and power must rival Radwan’s searing pace for man of the match, broke through to score under the posts.

Disappointingly, the opposition taking advantage of Macc mistakes to score is also a trend of this season.

Much of the remainder of the match was played between the ‘22’s, with the positives for Macclesfield being that they dominated the scrum, winning five penalties in this scenario in the day and stealing another and there was even a glimmer of hope when Dave Marwick popped the ball to Nick Allsop to score from a metre out with 65 minutes on the clock, but Darlington’s pace, power and better accuracy in attack put paid to any thoughts of a fightback with three tries in the last fiften minutes.

Firstly an opportunistic kick and chase from a Macclesfield handling error successfully chased down by outside centre Ben Frankland, then a great first phase carry by Uzokwe gave the home team enough go forward and space to let Radwan sneak in the corner for his hatrick, before that man Uzokwe again, carried and offloaded for Callum Mackenzie to score under the posts rounding off a resounding win.

Darlington just had too much power and pace for Macclesfield today, despite losing the scrum and maul battles.

Macc welcome the youthful Loughborough Students to Priory Park next week, after two disappointing away trips on the bounce.

They will have to deal with pacy backs a lot better in order to take anything fro the game but if the forecast is anything to go by the pitch may see to that.