Darlington 2 Southend United 2

Belgrave: Earned Blues a point

Blues boss Rob Newman once again brought himself back into the starting line up as Southend prepared to repeat their opening day triumph over the Quakers, the match will prove to be United's last at Feethams as Darlington are moving to a new home in the summer.

Newman replaced Stuart Thurgood in the starting eleven and played an anchoring role just in front of his defence in an otherwise unchanged side from the previous weekend's victory over Mansfield Town.

Darlington started the match the brighter side and on four minutes former Southend striker Barry Conlon, who was involved in much controversy at Roots Hall back in August and was eventually to become sinner once again in the second half, couldn't quite reach Danny Mellanby's dangerous right wing cross. Two minutes later an unmarked Conlon flicked a header onto Mellanby but the strikers shot was deflected wide.

Southend though soon began to create chances of their own and Steven Clark, latching onto a Carl Hutchings pass, flashed a centre across the face of the bobbly goalmouth, although no United forward was on hand to connect with a decisive touch.

Conlon saw a shot deflected over the crossbar by Stephen Broad and the resulting Neil Wainwright corner was headed over by David Brightwell.
Southend created a fantastic opportunity on 20 minutes, Tesfaye Bramble showed great pace and power to dispossess Craig Liddell, but as Bramble raced toward goal Collett came off his line to push the ball away from the strikers feet, however Belgrave latched onto the ball, in turn played it to Hutchings who picked out Steven Clark in space inside the area, however the loanee winger could only shoot tamely wide from 10 yards. Leon Cort was outpaced by Conlon two minutes later, but Conlon's shot from 18 yards was pushed around the post by Darryl Flahavan.

Bramble sent a low shot straight at Collett and Flahavan once again had to be alert to tip a Neil Maddison shot round the post, but Darlington took the lead on 37 minutes. A Wainwright corner caused sheer havoc in the Southend defence and in an epic goalmouth scramble Flahavan appeared to be fouled before Paul Heckingbottom became the man credited with bundling the ball into the Shrimpers net.

Southend however, not flustered by going behind quickly responded and within a minute Bramble sent a vicious drive against Collett's left hand post, however United still went in a goal down at the break.

Rob Newman, who was visibly struggling to keep up with the pace of the match on a difficult pitch, surrendered himself at the interval in favour of Mark Rawle who adopted a left flank role.

The Shrimpers quickly established themselves as a threat early in the second period, in the 49th minute Bramble, acrobatically, couldn't quite connect to Clark's cross but Rawle picked up the pieces and following a deflection off a Darlington defender drove a great shot low in the net, but bizarrely Rawle was adjudged to be offside. The next action however saw the home side double their advatage courtesy of a highly controversial penalty. Conlon appeared to be inpeding Phil Whelan as the big striker backed into the Blues captain, however Conlon inexplicably fell to earth and everybody was rather astonished as referee Andy Bates pointed towards the penalty spot. Once Conlon had got back to his feet Mark Ford smashed the penalty into the bottom right hand corner, sending Flahavan the wrong way. Just four minutes later though Conlon could, and perhaps should, have put the Quakers three goals to the good, however with the Conlon about to take aim at Flahavan, Leon Cort appeared from nowhere to slip the ball away from the striker.

Kevin Maher: Superb strike to put Blues back in the match

Southend were denied a possible penalty of their own in the 77th minute when Phil Whelan was pushed inside the area but only a minute later the Shrimpers began their fightback when Kevin Maher sent a terrific 25 yards shot flying past Collett and into the top left hand corner.

United began to completely dominate the closing minutes but it looked to be a frustrating afternoon's work until Bramble surged goalward with only a minute of normal time remaining. Bramble was felled on the edge of the area but the ball fell beautifully for Belgrave, who with only Collett in front of him dispatched a powerful shot low into the net to the delight of the small band of travelling supporters. However Southend weren't quite finished, in the final minute of stoppage time Bramble sprinted down the left flank before slipping the ball across the face of goal where Mark Rawle was millimetres away from poking home a dramatic winner.

However I think everyone will settle for a point!