In beating Wycombe Wanderers Darlington may not have put in the most convincing performance of the season but that didn't matter as much as the three-point haul.

Quakers needed a win to nip in the bud a run of form that could have turned into a slide down the table.

With a third of the season gone that table sees Quakers at exactly the halfway point - 12th - meaning they are at a crucial point; they must raise their game a notch if they are to remain in the hunt for a play-off place.

There are many clubs, Quakers included, who have endured much longer runs in pursuit of victory, but in the two games since beating Oxford, Darlington had looked far from fluent; mistakes in defence peppered the defeat at home to Bury during which Darlington never looked worthy of a point.

The same could be said of the first 45 minutes of the draw at Notts County when the defence was sliced open time after time.

Every team suffers a dip in form but the successful sides, at any level, tend not to let theirs do any lasting damage; a win to prevent any rot setting in was required and so it came on Saturday, probably fortunately.

Although victory remains paramount, the manner in which it came against Tony Adams' team doesn't bode well - beating Southend with great style seems a long time ago now.

Again Darlington's defence was stretched with the current back-three of Brian Close, Joe Kendrick and Matt Clarke not as formidable a back-line as those whose boots they're filling.

Crag Liddle, Joey Hutchinson and Curtis Fleming are all out injured for varying degrees of time and it's hard to imagine any of those three committing as rash a challenge in their own penalty area as Kendrick did.

Fortunately for the Dubliner referee Paul Robinson deemed his tackle on Nathan Tyson legal - much to the relief of the Darlington fans, most of whom were expecting a spot-kick.

A successful Wanderers penalty would have made the score level and not many would say Wycombe didn't deserve a point from their first trip to the Williamsons Motors Stadium.

Adams certainly didn't.

But that's of no concern to Quakers who must now build on the win, and their sixth clean sheet of the season, if they're to keep their top half position.

The objective must now be to ensure the win becomes a starting point of a good run of form, a swing of momentum; what must stop is the inconsistent performances and results that are responsible for the team wallowing in midtable since the beginning of the season.

Saturday's win was Darlington's third in their last five league games which is a statistic that reads far better than the previous five league matches in which Quakers didn't win at all.

The foundations upon which a promotion charge is built are in place. As long as Craig Hignett, Alun Armstrong and Clyde Wijnhard are in the team the potential for goals will always be there, while Darlington possess one of the best defensive records in the Football League.

Nobody has conceded less goals - 11 in 15 games - in the entire Football League, just how much better would that be if any of Quakers' first-choice defenders were in the line-up?

Despite the problems, all of which can all be rectified, especially when Liddle and Fleming return (Hutchinson is out for the season), it has to be said Darlington's season has so far been a relative success.

In August nobody expected them to occupy a place in the top half of the table in November - some observers tipped Quakers for the drop.

They haven't conceded a goal in a third of their matches and winning the game in hand would push Darlington into the play-off zone, while there isn't a side in the division David Hodgson's team should be afraid of.

Nobody is saying the season was unravelling prior to beating Wycombe, similarly nobody is now confident of a promotion push either. That mode of thought only clicks into place once a succession of good results are matched by impressive performances, such as the 4-0 beating of Southend last month.

On Saturday Quakers got half of the equation right, now is the time to find some momentum.