Darlington 2 - Leeds United 4

THE Quakers' unbeaten pre-season run was brought to end on Tuesday night but former Charlton forward Kim Grant made an impressive start.

In front of a crowd of 5,872, Grant took only three minutes to open the scoring in the friendly against Leeds United at the New Stadium.

In the 4-2 defeat, the 31-year-old was the tenth striker to be used by David Hodgson in pre-season.

Kick-off was delayed by ten minutes due to crowd congestion, but within minutes Ian Clark found space down the left to cross the ball to unmarked Grant, who headed home past Australian trialist keeper Adam Federeci.

Only three players with Premiership experience made an appearance for Leeds - captain Lucas Radebe, former Newcastle winger Steve Guppy and trialist Chris Bart-Williams.

But it was youngster Andrew Keogh who levelled for the visitors after he blocked Michael Price's attempted clearance.

Two minutes later, there was little Price could do when Polish trialist Thomaz Rzasa blasted the ball into the top corner to make it 2-1.

Price then mis-judged Jamie McMaster's looping header which dropped into the net and added a third for Leeds in the 33rd minute.

At half time, Hodgson decided to switch Sam Russell for Price.

Leeds substitute Simon Johnson was unlucky in the 63rd minute, when his shot hit the side-netting after a rare error by Craig Liddle.

However, the stalwart defender more than made up for it when he pulled a goal back moments later, planting his header past Federeci from Neil Maddison's cross.

Johnson should have made it four later on when he struck the up-right, before McMaster added his second goal of the evening in injury time.

Quakers complete their preparations for the new season when they play Peterborough United tomorrow at the New Stadium.