Darlaston Town (1874) 3 Azaad Sports 1

Darlaston made it seven wins on the bounce as they progressed into Round 2 of the B'ham County FA Vase after avoiding a potential banana skin against their Division Two opponents.

This was a game where League standings and current form counted for nothing with 21 league places separating the teams whilst Azaad had not won since the opening game of the season. Player/manager Mark Swann was forced to make two changes with skipper Ryan McAllister unavailable and Kieron Parsons suspended.

In bright sunshine the home side started confidently Josh Carvel and Hayden Hughes missing two early chances. The visitors were also impressive with Connor Potts and Sandip Singh impressing in midfield. Darlaston took the lead slightly against the run of play on 13 minutes following an excellent three man move. Carvel and Sam Melia combined with Melia spreading the ball wide to Hughes who cut inside his marker an unleashed a superb 20 yard strike which found the top corner giving keeper Andrew Richards no chance. The goal should have settled the nerves but it had the opposite effect and spurred on the visitors who belied their lowly league position and looked impressive going forward with Potts and Kaila setting up difficult chances for Bhandal and Bahia. Darlaston had keeper Aaron Morris to thank for keeping them in front with two superb saves midway through the half. Firstly from Sandip Singh with a superb diving save and them miraculously pulling off a brilliant one handed save from Jaspal Bhandal's 6 yard header and then desperately, pushing away the rebound. The visitors were fluent in their play whilst in contrast the home side simply gave the ball away far too often and whilst the pace of Carvel and Sam Melia caused problems for the visitors defence there was a lack of quality in most of their play.

Darlaston opened the second half with a bit more intent and purpose and forced two early corners which came to nothing. Azaad were still giving as good as they got and Morris was again called into action on 57 and 63 minutes making comfortable saves from Bhandal and Potts respectively. The home side withstood the pressure and broke away to double their lead midway through the second half when Melia netted his seventh goal of the season slotting home a low drive into the far corner from 16 yards.

The visitors continued to impress but the extra strength and experience of the home side was evident as they confined the visitors to long range efforts. The score line was given a flattering look in the 78th minute when Hughes put the game beyond doubt with his second goal of the game. Azaad netted a deserved consolation goal six minutes from time when Ashley Justin deflected a Callum Haughton cross into his own net.

After the game player/manager Mark Swann could not conceal his disappointment at his team's performance "After two excellent performances against AFC Bridgnorth and Wrens Nest we should have started the game full of confidence. Instead we were very flat particularly in the first half which was our worst 45 minutes for a long time. I don't know if several players thought that our respective league positions meant this would be an easy game but it certainly was not. At least four players simply did not perform today and I was disappointed with our overall play, particularly in the first half. Take nothing away from Azaad they were excellent and played some good football and on another day would have won this game. That said the result is the most important thing and I am pleased that we managed to win and keep our winning streak going although we didn't play well."

Darlaston: Morris, Giles, Stanton, Swann, Justin, Ball (Baxter), Whitehouse, Hough,(Charlton), Hughes, Carvel, Melia (Wood).

Azaad Sports: Richards, Singh, Nahar, Rai, Sanghera, G Kaila, Bahir (Haughton), Kullar, Bhandal, Potts (Karara), Bahia(Wynter).

Cautions: Darlaston. Giles, Stanton, Swann, Justin
Cautions: Azaad: Richards, Singh, Rai, Kaila. 2nd Caution: Singh.