MICK Tait will be hoping a good result at Exeter City tomorrow will help him stake a claim for the vacant manager's position at Darlington following the departure of Tommy Taylor on Wednesday.

Tait has been made caretaker manager, while Craig Liddle, currently out injured, becomes player coach.

Chairman George Reynolds has not ruled Tait out of contention for the manager's post and his stock will certainly rise if he can halt Quakers' alarming slide down the table by improving a dismal run of results which ultimately cost Taylor his job.

Last Saturday's 3-2 home defeat by Boston United left Darlington in 20th position in Division Three with just three wins in 14 league games this season. Taylor had been in charge for a year, but his side won only 15 of his 53 games at the helm.

He clearly needed a win over Boston to have any chance of survival, but only two late goals prevented Quakers going down by an embarrassing three-goal margin to a team looking for their first away win of the season.

The former Leyton Orient manager's last match in charge was Tuesday night's 1-0 defeat at Stockport County in the LDV Vans Trophy first round, but Saturday's reversal was obviously the last straw for Reynolds.

Quakers trailed 1-0 at half-time and when Lee Thompson completed his hat-trick with ten minutes left, there seemed no way back.

A close-range effort from Ian Clark and a tremendous strike by Barry Conlon then set up a pulsating finale, but the goals only made the scoreline more respectable and could not disguise another woeful Quakers performance.

Reynolds said after Taylor's sacking that the club would not rush into a new appointment, but Tait will know he has to turn things round quickly.

Tomorrow's opponents, who have just taken on former Quakers boss Gary Bennett as assistant manager to Neil McNab, are two points and two places below Darlington.

Quakers then face bogey team Scunthorpe United at Feethams on Tuesday night.