[themaclad]

AFC Blackpool 2 McKenna Thomas AFC Darwen 4 Langford, Ashburner, Creech 2 Att 125

Well managed to get a game in before we all get Tier 4, well worth it was as well, some great gols a sending off, two sin binned and lots of action.
A rainy windswept afternoon, had the new arrangements to get into the ground, point your phone at some crystal maze symbol and have a socially distanced afternoon watching football.
No food or drink availabe to the watching public, the lads brought their own brewery although whether Budweiser can be classed as beer is open to doubt.
Darwen started brightly forced a couple of early corners which led to the unusual but great sight of the home side leaving three men up field. The home side had a bit of joy down the flanks but it was no surprise when the visitors took the lead
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A free kick on the right and Langford headed the ball over the advancing keeper . Should have been two a minute later if the referee had done his job, Darwen forward goes round the keeper, appear to be brought down corner.

The home side pressed and did get some joy going forward but never tested the Darwen keeper, the away side always looked the more likely to score and they duly did when the ball was punched skywards by the home keeper, the finish by Ashburner was quality back to the goal he flicked the ball into the net with the outside of his right foot, great skill.

On the stroke of half time the home side reduced the arrears slick iner passing by Booth and McKenna led to the latter sliding the ball passed the keeper game on.

The home side started the second half on the front foot and were soon level, a great free kick by Thomas to the left of the penalty area fired into the net at pace.
The aftermath of the goal saw a Darwen player sent off for a second booking, it was about this time the official was starting to lose the plot. Blackpool attacked en masse forcing the visitors back and as is sometimes the case the visitoors broke away and Creech made it 2-3
Got a bit tetchy at this point Blackpool reduced to 10 due to a sin binning for an attempted foul. A bit of farce then ensued, the home side made two substitutions and it took a while to realise only one player had gone off, new fangled rules on leaving the pitch anywhere when substituted.
The referee was getting into the Christmas spirit cards everywhere. The home side by this time had 11 men back on the pitch until the last couple of minutes when they lost another player to another sin bin and late in the game another breakaway led to Creech getting his second and the visitors fourth.
Great stuff should be at Garstang next week have to make the most of freedom before we get mutated