QUAKERS DUO SPARK DECISIVE GOAL BURST
THERE were seven goals and four penalties during an incident-packed game at Darlington, who are up to second after recovering from falling behind to beat Gainsborough Trinity 5-2.
The mid-table visitors took the lead through Nathan Jarman after 22 minutes, the striker capitalising on a Gary Brown error to rifle home before referee Paul Newhouse took centre stage.
He pointed to the spot on 39 minutes when full-back Josh Lacey handled a Josh Gillies cross, but Gainsborough keeper George Willis athletically leapt to his right to keep out Terry Galbraith’s penalty.
But Galbraith had another spot-kick within two minutes and this time made no mistake. Gainsborough were understandably furious about the decision from an assistant referee to flag for what he believed was a foul on Quakers’ Mark Beck.
Galbraith’s goal made it 1-1 and 50 seconds after the restart the defender crossed for Brown to head home and make it 2-1.
The swift turnaround was soon cancelled out when Newhouse again stunned Heritage Park when he awarded another spot-kick, this time for a handball against Darlington’s Josh Falkingham.
James Reid smashed home from 12 yards for 2-2 on 54 minutes, at which point Darlington boss Martin Gray sent on Nathan Cartman and Dave Syers, an attacking midfielder who this time a year ago was in League One with Scunthorpe.
Both made an impact. Cartman turned home from close range after a Beck knock-down to make it 3-2 and Syers’ surging run ended with a penalty against Jake Picton, giving Galbraith the chance to score his second spot-kick of the day.
He made no mistake and has seven goals for the season. But the last goal of the afternoon was yet to arrive.
It came after a lengthy build-up of passes, Beck holding the ball up for Syers to run through and finish the scoring on his debut.
Most recently with Guiseley, Syers only got clearance to play at 11pm on Friday and Gray praised his new signing.
He said: “He came on at 2-2 and we asked him to break through the lines and gamble
a bit. Two or three times he did that really well. He won a penalty and scored a good goal so I was glad to see him make a contribution.”
On the four spot-kicks, Gray said: “I think you could discuss the penalty decisions all day. That much went on, I don’t remember things all that clearly. What I do know is that there were penalties scoffed, one was missed, the referee gave penalties that not everyone agreed with – there was always something happening.”