They say that over the course of a season good and bad luck just about even themselves out - but it's only taken a week for exactly that to happen to Darlington.

A week ago Quakers were thankful for the fine goalkeeping of youngster Sam Russell whose saves earned a fortunate win over Grimsby and on Saturday it was a similar story; this time Kidderminster Harriers' rookie No 1 pulling out all the stops to deny Darlington a point.

Although Quakers can hardly say they peppered John Danby's goal at Aggborough, Darlington forced more shots on target than the hosts - two late efforts looking goal-bound from the boot and head of Craig Russell and Matt Clarke respectively, until Danby's spectacular interventions.

Prior to kick-off Richie Appleby, a Kidderminster midfielder and brother of former Darlington man Matty, had spoken to David Hodgson and warned Quakers manager about the talented young keeper who was man-of-the-match in their last game against Notts County and is yet to concede a goal this season.

Hodgson said: "I spoke to Richie before the game and they said the keeper was top drawer - I was hoping that would give him the kiss of death but it didn't work out that way.

"He made a couple of great saves, especially from Matt Clarke late on. I heard he was outstanding during the week against Notts County and he was outstanding against us.

"But let's not kid ourselves, we weren't at the races across the board as far as I am concerned."

Despite sending-off Kidderminster's Simon Brown for twice kicking the ball away in a minute of madness, Hodgson was disappointed with the performance of match referee Steve Tanner.

Most notable was his decision not to award a Darlington penalty when Mark Convery was felled in the box, instead giving Quakers a debatable corner.

Hodgson fumed: "We had a stonewall penalty when Con was pushed down. He kept stopping the game and sometimes gave us decisions when they clearly shouldn't have been.

"I've never seen Jan Molby as irate as that before and it's rare both sides aren't happy with the ref."