Southport crash out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle

Football can be a very cruel game at times and Southport felt the full force of that this afternoon going down, and out of the FA Cup at Darlington by three goals to two.

The first 15 minutes were all action.

Southport took the lead in the 5th minute when Niall Watson stooped low to head in after a flick on by Chris Doyle from a Josh Hmami corner.

The lead was short lived with Darlington equalising just two minutes later in the games turning point. Michael Carberry was adjudged to have committed a foul on the Darlington attacker in the area and the referee awarded a penalty but made matters worse by sending the Southport defender off. At the time it looked like a stonewall penalty, the video shows very clearly that was not the case but was it deserving of a sending off, the man that mattered said yes and Southport had to play 83 minutes with ten men. Mark Beck duly despatched the pen.

However Southport were playing some neat passing football and took the lead again in the 13th minute when after great work by Watson Tyler Walton fired home from close range.

The 16th minute saw another pivotal moment in the game, Taylor in the Darlington goal looked to have handled the ball outside the area but nothing was given.

Southport were well deserving of the 2-1 lead at half time.

We expected a second half onslaught from the home side but it never materialised until the 55th minute when Beck got his second heading home from a corner with Southport down to 9 men at the time as Walton was off the field after having received treatment for an injury.

Watson went close for the visitors on 60 minutes nearly walking the ball in after a mazy run but it was not to be.

Having put in so much effort with ten men the legs were starting to go and with Darlington pressing forward Beck completed his hat-trick on 80 minutes pouncing on a mistake from Tony McMillan to fire home.

Southport nearly benefited from an own goal late on which hit the bar and went over, somewhat bizzarely the ref awarded a goalkick.

It was not to be for the visitors, the complimentary comments from the Darlington fans about our performance and forgetting we were the team with ten men said a lot but it is another defeat and an early exit from this season’s FA Cup.