Quakers stutter and stumble as the finishing line comes into view

Like the thousands of runners who put themselves through yesterday's London Marathon, Quakers have turned the final corner and have the end in sight, but just when one last sprint is required, Darlington have been reduced to a torturous crawl.

One win in their last five games, and only fleetingly brief glimpses of convincing form in that period, means Quakers are stumbling towards the season's end but, luckily for them, their rivals for the last remaining play-off spot appear to have hit the wall.

Both Northampton Town and Wycombe Wanderers suffered surprising defeats while Rochdale drew at home, all of which helped to soften the blow of conceding a frustrating sloppy equaliser in the third minute of injury time that denied Darlington a much-needed win.

Infuriatingly for seventh-placed Quakers, who would have opened a four-point gap between themselves and Northampton in eighth, with just seconds remaining a corner was headed home by unmarked Rhys Day who atoned for his first minute penalty miss, Sam Russell saving the spot-kick.

The late goal was hard to take for Darlington, not only because the three points were desperately needed but also because the performance was a vast improvement on the previous week's defeat to Cambridge.

For the most part Darlington maintained the high tempo football demanded of them by manager David Hodgson, while they were solid at the back with Matthew Bates enjoying an outstanding game on his debut on loan from Middlesbrough.

The young centre-back won every high ball which came his way, while he showed a confident willingness to bring it out of defence to set Quakers on the attack, as he did to start the move which ended with Clyde Wijnhard putting Darlington ahead.

But for all his good work at the back, Bates and his new team-mates were left disappointed when Day headed the leveller, a goal which could, and should, have been avoided.

Although pleased with the performance, Hodgson and assistant manager Mark Proctor were angry about the slack marking which led to Day's goal and the latter blasted: "We were in the last few seconds of the game and thought we had the three points in the bag but one of one of our players wasn't professional enough in the 18 yard box at a set play and it has cost us two points.

"We prepared properly during the week but, although I don't want to name the individual, there's someone in that dressing room in who didn't do their job.

"We know the importance of set-plays so we work on them in training all week and we felt we had done our jobs but a lapse in concentration in the final seconds cost us the game."

It cost Darlington the game but, thanks to results elsewhere, Quakers are escaping with some poor results at the moment.

They've picked up only five points from a possible 15 in their last five games - most of which were against teams in the bottom half.

"It was an ideal opportunity to consolidate that seventh spot," admitted Proctor.

"It's typical of us, we don't do things the easy way. I said a few weeks ago that there'd still be a few twists and turns along the way and that's what has happened and no doubt there's more to come before May 7.

"So now there's a feeling of massive disappointment, but we did play well over the 90 minutes and it was a massive improvement on last week."

Although the injury-time goal took the shine off Quakers' day, the performance, with Darlington making five team changes and switching to 4-4-2, was an improvement although the day almost got off to a disastrous start when after only 30 seconds they conceded a penalty.

Without a second invitation former Quaker Adam Rundle hit the ground under a Ryan Valentine challenge but the increasingly impressive Russell again came to the rescue when he repeated his penalty save at Grimsby by diving low to his right to stop Day's effort.

The Mansfield attack which brought that penalty proved to be one of their few forward forays as even in the first half Carlton Palmer's team appeared to happy to settle for a point, defending corners and free-kicks with every player in their own box.

Inside the first quarter of an hour Alun Armstrong won a corner when his early shot was deflected wide, while Joe Kendrick hit a rising left-foot shot that went just over the bar from 25 yards as Darlington showed some of the quick-passing they are capable of.

Neil Wainwright, back in the team and in his best form for some time, created a chance for Armstrong that hit the stanchion behind the goal, while Stephen Thomas also tested goalkeeper Jason White who was making his league debut.

Ten minutes into the second half Wainwright beat two defenders but his cross was cleared. However, the winger later latched on to Bates' knock and crossed to the far post where, thanks to Armstrong's off-the-ball run, Wijnhard found himself unmarked to tap into an empty net.

But on three occasions after the goal Wijnhard wasted chances to kill the game off, first lashing wide from 16 yards after shrugging off a challenge, then he blasted wide after his initial attempt had been blocked by White's legs.

The misses proved costly because with time ticking away, Mansfield began to put some pressure on and in injury-time a corner by Rundle ended in the net as Day found space to pick his spot.

It was a soft goal to concede at any time, especially when there's still much at stake for Darlington, and it meant the game ended on a sour note for Quakers.

But at least their rivals slipped up, meaning, despite only drawing, Darlington ended the day in a better position than they started and it's Quakers who are in the driving seat as the season approaches its end.

As they bid to make a dash to the line, lowly Rushden visit the Williamson Motors Stadium on Saturday and, with a trip to fifth-placed Lincoln to follow, Darlington must now be hoping they're about to catch their second wind.

Result: Mansfield Town 1 Darlington 1.

Read more about the Quakers here.