Darlaston Town (1874) 4 Willenhall Town 4

What an incident packed afternoon at The Paycare Ground, eight goals, a hat trick and a sending off, some may say a typical local derby.

The match started as usual at a good pace, both sides throwing their all into the opening minutes which Darlaston edged, after 9 Hayden Hughes was tripped on the wide right-hand edge of the penalty area, Kelly scoring the penalty low to the keepers right.

The Darlaston pressure continued for the next 20 mins with Broadway rattling the bar, and Willenhall clearing off the line, until on the 32nd Minute following a long ball from the Willenhall defence Causton dispatched a defensive header into the bottom left hand corner of his own net which was totally against the run of play.

The Darlaston pressure continued and in the 41st minute Hughes dispatched his first of the afternoon after a Giles cross from the right, with half-time approaching Hughes scored Darlaston’s third after Willenhall failed to clear a corner.

Darlaston started the second half brightly but after 56 minutes Willenhall scored a fine shot from the left side of the area from substitute Jakeman, following the goal, Darlaston player Lucas Hough was sent off for allegedly for kicking out at a Willenhall player after their attempts to grab the ball following the goal.

Darlaston were clearly shell-shocked after the goal and sending off because they conceded again 5 mins later, Willenhall’s second substitute Challoner-Campbell scoring a fine goal beating Morris low to his right making the score 3-3.

But alas the scoring was not finished yet Hayden Hughes completing his hat trick on 71 after a fine ball from Causton. Despite Darlaston having the lion’s share of the play for the remainder of the half, Willenhall’s third substitute Fox scored the final goal of the game in the 93rd minute making the score line an even 4-4 draw when the final whistle blew seconds later.

On a sad note there were two bad injuries suffered in the first half, both to left knees, Ryan Kingdon of Darlaston and Suki Sarai of WIllenhall both required Paramedic treatment, and our thoughts and best wishes go to both, and hope they have speedy and good recoveries.

Darlaston Town (1874) next match is on Wednesday evening away against Tipton Town, at Tipton Sports Academy kick off 7.45pm