Chambers seals draw with crisis-hit Darlington (From York Press)

News RSS Feed

Ashley Chambers seals draw with crisis-hit Darlington

12:00pm Monday 30th January 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Dave Flett, Sports reporter

STRIKER Ashley Chambers has been challenged to reproduce the form that saw him rescue a point for York City at troubled Darlington.

Chambers, who has failed to start any of City’s last five matches, was hailed off the bench by manager Gary Mills with the visitors trailing 2-0 54 minutes into Saturday’s Blue Square Bet Premier clash.

The former Leicester striker went on to claim an assist and a goal within six minutes of his introduction, delivering the corner that saw Chris Smith reduce the deficit before finding the net for a ninth time this season.

City chief Mills said: “Ash did what we want him to do more often when he got us the equaliser. He gives you pace and he was lively when he came on.”

Skipper Smith’s efforts were also lauded again by Mills, who believes the 30-year-old centre-back is now meeting the standards he set last season after a less impressive campaign this term.

The Minstermen boss added: “My skipper was fantastic again. He got us another goal to put them on the back foot and his leadership over the last couple of games has been excellent.

“He’s been annoyed with himself this season, as have the other centre-halves. They haven’t been the players they can be, but you don’t just throw good players away.

“Anybody who has watched Smudger over the last two games will have seen what he’s about. We had that week in, week out last season and I hope we will get it until the end of the season now.”

Mills was left lamenting the goals his team conceded, however, with the first from a poorly-defended short corner and the second after recalled midfielder Andre Boucaud lost possession in the visitors’ half.

He went on to pay tribute to his team’s character, though, after they fought back for a point, saying: “The first goal came from a short corner that we were slow getting out to.

“You should be sending two players out for a short corner, but we didn’t even get one out there. The cross then went into our box and the ball was in the back of the net.

“That summed us up in the first half and we deserved to be a goal down at the break. Then, it’s a long way back when you concede another poor goal early in the second half.

“We were poor and they were better than us up to that point, but then we played how we can with more urgency and got the two goals back. It was a funny game but we showed character to get another massively valuable point and that was pleasing.

“In the end, we could have won because we had a couple cleared off the line and their ’keeper made a good save so we can take a lot from that because we remain fourth, in the play-off positions and are looking forward to a last 16 tie in the Trophy.”

Darlington had not won a single point in 2012 prior to Saturday’s game and, despite Mills insisting he fully expected a tough match against the crisis club close to extinction and with six teenagers on duty, he also pointed out that he would have felt a little cheated by the team’s past performances if he had been in the opposition dugout.

He said: “I’d be a bit annoyed if I was the Darlington manager because, if they could show the same level of commitment as they did against us every week, then they would be sitting where we are in the table.”

Mills gave Matthew Blinkhorn his full debut with Jamie Reed dropping to the bench and, after replacing the former Sligo Rovers forward on 73 minutes, said: “He hasn’t played an abundance of football and tired a bit. He was struggling to hold the ball up, but that will come with him.”

Comments(31)

duffy says...
12:10pm Mon 30 Jan 12

Oh well that's us sticking with the centre halves we have then.