Start as you mean to go on, so they say and if Darlington adhere to that proverb they will enjoy a great season.

Darlington deserved the three points purely on their second half performance; a massive improvement on the opening 45 minutes which had set alarm bells ringing.

The three new boys all enjoyed varying degrees of success.

Matt Clarke was steady but sometimes clumsy; Ryan Valentine looked very able; but it was Ashley Nicholls who stole the show with a tremendous winner.

He introduced himself to the Darlington fans by curling a 20-yard right-footed shot to mark his League debut in tremendous fashion.

Manager Tommy Taylor was pleased with the win, but warned there are still some rough edges to smooth down.

"We still need to work a bit harder upfront, closing down defenders to stop them hitting the ball upfield," he said

"You can't really complain when you win away from home. It would have been nice to win 2-0 and keep a clean sheet, but people keep saying we have a bad away record, so let's start from today and put that right.

"I thought Nicholls had a comfortable game today, played a great, early, pass to Neil Wainwright who was unlucky with an excellent shot which hit the post."

With two home games in quick succession, Swansea tomorrow and Oxford on Saturday, the win sets up Quakers for a great start to the season.

The hosts scored very early on, admittedly a scrappy goal, but nonetheless the sixth minute strike had been on the cards since the kick-off and it took Darlington some time to recover.

Cambridge fluffed a short corner but, in an otherwise good performance, Adam Rundle dallied and wasted the opportunity to clear which allowed the hosts to swing in a cross which found its way to the far post for Dave Kitson to flick in.

Cambridge, a young side, were lively and put some good moves together which left the travelling 417 fans wondering if it had been worth the journey.

But Darlington did eventually work their way back into the match with workhorse Neil Maddison hitting the bar with a free-kick and just before the break Quakers converted an impressive equaliser.

Craig Liddle lofted the ball forward to Barry Conlon on the edge of the area, who knocked the ball into Ian Clark's path to smash home.

The goal lifted Darlington and they were far more convincing in the second half, creating several scoring chances, with Wainwright being very unlucky when his 25-yard blast cannoned off the inside of the post.

But the winning goal came not long afterwards and it was one to savour for Nicholls.

The former Ipswich man picked up a cleared corner, and curled the ball beyond the keeper from the edge of the penalty area.

With Darlington cruising to victory, Kitson almost grabbed an undeserved point for the home side when he crashed a header onto the bar in the last minute. However, the win was tinged with an injury to first-choice keeper Andy Collett, who took a blow to the ribs shortly before the break which meant he was unable to reappear for the second half.

He was taken to hospital on Saturday evening and may not be fit for tomorrow night's match.

Read more about the Quakers here.