A goal from Craig Liddle earned a deserved point for Darlington after they recovered from going behind to an early goal at Yeovil Town last night.

Last season it took Darlington 15 attempts to bring home all three points from an away fixture but it shouldn't take quite as long this time around if this performance, which improved as the game went on, provides any kind of accurate benchmark.

It wasn't until February when Quakers won 2-0 at Huddersfield that David Hodgson was able to celebrate victory on enemy territory.

And while he may have to wait until Saturday's trip at Kidderminster to pick up an away win, the 1-1 draw at Huish Park will have pleased the manager who saw his team fight back from going a goal down after just six minutes with Liddle equalising shortly after the break.

Darlington had to weather a difficult opening to the game with Yeovil playing some neat football which the visitors sometimes struggled to cope with.

Despite beating Grimsby Town on Saturday Hodgson made two changes to his starting 11 with Mark Convery and Brian Close dropped.

Convery could feel unfortunate to only be on the bench, swapping places with Neil Wainwright who earned a recall after his late entrance as a second half sub against Grimsby swung the game in Darlington's favour.

Hodgson was less than satisfied with the amount of scoring opportunities the Mariners were allowed to create so, with Curtis Fleming overcoming an ankle injury in time to make his Darlington debut three days later than scheduled, Close was dropped altogether with Fleming in at centre-back.

But rather than restrict the number of scoring chances, Darlington allowed Yeovil to attack from the off, cutting through Quakers' midfield in the first minute and it wasn't long before they scored.

Clark Keltie gave the ball away inside his own half to Gavin Williams and he found Phil Jevons on the edge of the area from where he struck right-footed across keeper Sam Russell into the far corner.

Darlington's first meaningful attack on the quarter hour mark ended in disappointment as Wainwright raced towards goal but couldn't decide whether to cross or shoot and his end product was neither as the ball rolled wide.

Russell had to be alert to make a handful of saves including a snap-shot by Adrian Caceres from 16 yards, while Fleming was in the right place at the right time to clear off the line following a corner.

In pre-season Darlington have looked dangerous from set-pieces so it was always a likely bet that any goal for would come from such a situation and so it proved eight minutes into the second half as Liddle scored with a trademark header.

A mix-up between the keeper and Terry Skiverton gifted Quakers a corner and from Russell's flag kick Liddle made a late run to head home unmarked from close-range.

Not long afterwards Clark came close to putting Darlington ahead but after racing clear of the offside trap his dink over the keeper from an angle hit the side-netting.

With Quakers putting up a better show in the second half another chance soon fell their way but from a Joe Kendrick free-kick Wainwright just couldn't quite stretch to meet it at the far post.

Wainwright provided Darlington with an outlet on the right for most of the second half and in the dying minutes he almost created a winning goal with a deep right-wing cross that found sub Ian Clark. However, his header lacked direction and Quakers had to settle for a point.

The performance was an improvement on Saturday's win and the draw means Darlington are now on four points - precisely four more than they had at this stage a year ago