Durham United vs Darlington Railway Athletic
Wearside Premier Division
Saturday 11th January 2025
Maiden Castle, DH1 3SE
14:00
Written by Phil Kay
Following a timely break from football over the Christmas period, we returned to Durham early, before the beginning of term, for a mid-season training week leading up to the first Wearside game of the new year against Darlington Railway Athletic. The week consisted of training everyday from the 6th of January up until the fixture on the 11th (surely enough time to run off all the Christmas pudding).
Matchday arrived quickly; as a squad we knew that hitting the ground running in 2025 would keep our promotion aims on track. It was a must win game.
We started sharply with a good tempoy, keeping Darlington on the back foot and looking like opening the scoring at any minute. Fin Gwillim did just that, as he chased onto a through ball and got into the box, he was brought down by the Darlington defender- penalty. Gwillim calmly rolled the ball into the bottom-left corner and Durham looked like continuing the pre-Christmas form.
1-0 quickly became 2-0 after a sweeping move from back to front with Gwillim playing a sumptuous ball in behind for Fred Walton to chase. Walton then played an inch perfect pass across the box and I stuck it in the back of the net. High quality football coming from United, a pleasing sign with tough matches in the forthcoming weeks.
We went on to score again with Gwillim grabbing his second goal, followed by his third and, remarkably, then his fourth. United were 5-0 up within 30 minutes and looked hungry for more.
With Gwillim scoring 4 within the first half, have a look (and listen) to exactly what he gets up to in a training session!
Two more goals came from Sam Benoist; two headers from set pieces which is an area where United have lacked ruthlessness in previous matches, but Benoist ensured that we capitalised. That rounded off the first half: 7-0 up with a pretty much flawless performance. In the dressing room, captain Freddie Merrett said that it was probably the best 45 minutes of football played at Durham.
Half-Time: Durham United 7 - 0 Darlington Railway Athletic
We knew that keeping a clean sheet in the second half would make the scoreline look a lot better so the emphasis was on keeping Darlington under pressure which led to the 8th goal of the game.
Alex Dinan and Charlie Bramwell, dogged as ever, forced a turnover in the Darlington half and managed to play me through on goal. Rory Edwards had joked in the first half that he wanted to get on the score sheet and, keeping this in mind, I squared the ball to him to walk it into the net.
Gwillim (who had been substituted) called over to Rory to say that it didn’t count, and he needed to score a real goal.
United scored two more goals before the final whistle, one from Chris Seery, assisted by Rory, and another from myself, assisted by Ollie England and a fortunate deflection off the goalkeeper. 10-0. A resounding and dominant victory for United. One of the most pristine performances of the season to open the new year, which is a great sign for things to come.
Full-Time: Durham United 10 - 0 Darlington Railway Athletic
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Player of the Match: Fin Gwillim
Line-Up: Jasper Gourley; Chris Wild; Freddie Merrett (c); Ellis Challinor; Sam Benoist (Goal x2); Fred Walton; Charlie Bramwell' Alex Dinan' Rory Edwards (Goal); Phil Kay (Goal x2); Fin Gwillim (Goal x4)
Substitutes: Jonah Blake; Ollie England; Seb Hopkins; Zane Liles; Chris Seery (Goal)
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