Darlington have invested a lot of faith and finance in assembling an impressive attack which will average more good days than bad, but what David Hodgson needs next is some consistency from his team.

Quakers have made massive strides in recent weeks and to maintain that momentum another win was needed and following the return of the feelgood factor in recent weeks a result anything other than a win was always going to be a disappointment.

So to lose, and deservedly so, came as a shock to most.

The reality check hit home hardest with those expecting The Hignett, Armstrong and Wijnhard Show to again lead a winning performance by playing to their maximum - but there's only so much the attackers can do on their own without support from midfield, while the defence were uncharacteristically error prone.

There's no doubting the front trio, and the rest of the team, can do better but it was astounding to hear a small minority having the audacity to boo Darlington at the final whistle.

A repeat performance of the four-goal show a fortnight previously was always going to be too much to ask but despite losing at home it cannot be said Saturday's performance was as bad as some this season.

But that's the problem with back-to-back wins; supporters raise their level of expectation.

Hodgson certainly expected better of his men.

He said: "People have been talking about the possibility of being in the top four or five if we win and players talking about bonuses but that's a complete waste of time until we reach a certain level of consistency.

"When I can go to sleep on a Friday night knowing that players are going to play the next day as they did the week before and the week before that, then we can think long term, but we can't do that yet.

"At the moment I'm nowhere near that stage."

Assuming a home win was on the way a decent sized crowd was in attendance but they were left despondent at the final whistle, despite the first half being even with each team enjoying spells of possession.

But the only team looking dangerous in attack were the visitors; without reward they bossed the opening ten minutes, running straight at the centre of Darlington's defence.

Alun Armstrong should have given Quakers a 12th minute lead instead of blasting over from ten yards following Wijnhard's knock-down.

It was the first of seven chances Armstrong was to waste and perhaps such a miss was the first sign that it just wasn't to be his day.

But Bury striker David Nugent enjoyed his day, almost opening the scoring midway through the first half after outpacing Matt Clarke to latch on to a through-ball but his shot was saved low to Sam Russell's right.

Shortly afterwards, in the build-up to Bury's first goal, Russell again denied Nugent after the Shakers forward was allowed to dribble at speed towards Darlington's backtracking defence before seeing his shot tipped away for a corner, but Hodgson pointed the finger of blame at midfielder Adolfo Gregorio.

"You've got to look at how they won the corner. Sam did make a good save but they went on the attack by Adolfo losing the ball near the halfway line.

"All he had to was a simple pass, but he didn't execute it properly so all of a sudden they're on the break."

From Brian Barry-Murphy's inswinging corner Chris Porter headed firmly into the net. But his header came in the six-yard box and perhaps Darlington's defence and goalkeeper could have done more.

It wasn't long before Bury's second goal came and this time both Russell and Joe Kendrick were at fault. The keeper's goal-kick only reached the edge of the centre circle where Kendrick was unable to gain control of the ball, letting in the alert Nugent who rounded Russell before unselfishly passing to Terry Dunfield to tap into an empty net.

The two-goal blast left Darlington shell-shocked although they did have a chance to pull a goal back in injury time but Armstrong could only prod straight at keeper, Glyn Garner.

The first half may have seen equal amounts of possession but in the second 45 Bury, with a two-goal lead, were happy to attack on the break, while Darlington showed themselves unable to carve up the Shakers' defence.

Hodgson lamented his side's lack of invention, saying: "Bury are a vastly improved side from the team we played last season - they play football now but we didn't.

"Against Southend we were very good offensively, we were positive in the last third and had players getting forward but today we had five people sitting in midfield which meant we had no support for the strikers.

"On the odd occasion that a midfielder got forward we actually had a chance or created something so that tells you what we should've been doing more of.

"In the final third we just did not perform as we have done over the last few weeks."

Darlington did create chances but none were clear-cut - Armstrong on the end of most of them - while Wijnhard had a goal ruled out for a foul on a Bury defender but he finally got his third in as many games in the 89th minute.

Substitute Ian Clark - pushing for a recall after a productive showing - dinked a ball to the edge of the area where the Dutchman fired into the roof of the net with great power.

As good a strike as it was, apart from preserving Darlington's long-standing record of not being beaten by more than one goal for almost a year the strike meant little, although it did show that, with players like Wijnhard in the team, goals can come out of nothing.

Hopefully, Saturday's 90 minutes will prove a rare off day and that Quakers will return to form at Notts County tomorrow night.

Result: Darlington 1 Bury 2.

Read more about the Quakers here.