Darlington 5, Halifax 0 - Darlington completed a satisfactory Easter double with Monday's convincing win at home to Halifax which sent the visitors into the Nationwide Conference for the second time in their history.
Coming two days after a 2-1 win at Hull, Darlington were in control for the entire game and had the chances to reach double-figures as Ian Clark notched his second and third goals of the weekend, though the visitors' tame performance did contribute to Quakers' dominance because Halifax were a poor side lacking in every department.
From the kick-off the Shaymen knew they were battling against the odds to maintain their League status, but conceding two goals in inside the first quarter-of-an-hour and being reduced to ten men after a red card shattered any confidence they may have had left.
Like watching a condemmed man on Death Row dragging his heals as he's hauled to the electric chair, Halifax knew they were doomed from the moment Ian Clark put Darlington two ahead with a twice-taken penalty.
Quite rightly, Darlington showed no mercy as Tommy Taylor's side rammed in five goals and should've scored more, but why Quakers' fans felt it was appropriate to chant "Going down, going down," to their Halifax counterparts is open to debate.
As most Quaker fans know all too well, going down to the conference is a sickening feeling but perhaps these fans in the Tin Shed have managed to wipe the day Darlington were relegated to the conference 13 years ago clean from the memory.
Nonetheless, manager Tommy Taylor held little sympathy for the west Yorkshire club who were also relegated to non-League football in 1993.
"I don't feel sorry for anybody, I'm sure they wouldn't feel sorry for us if we had gone down. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh but that's the name of the game.
"There's 46 games in a season to get out of trouble and they haven't done that."
Despite the players not being paid last week, because of an error by Barclays Bank, it was Darlington's best result since Taylor took over in October.
He said: "We played some good balls down the side of them today and had some good, honest people out there who were prepared to turn balls into good crosses and get in shots and headers.
"I thought we looked quite lively up-front , we just need Barry to hold the ball up a bit more than he is doing and hit his target a bit quicker but it was nice to score some goals for a change." The game got off to a positive start with three corners inside the first five minutes but Halifax were clearly nervous as keeper Barry Richardson fumbled a speculative Barry Conlon effort before Graham Mitchell needlessly kicked the rebound into touch with no Darlington player wthin 15 yards, and then Mark Jules was lucky Quakers didn't capitalise when he sold a backpass very short.
Darlington opened the scoring after ten minutes when Brian Atkinson sent Clark into the box and the former Hartlepool man prodded the ball past Richardson to convert a goal not too dissimilar to his strike at Hull on Saturday.
Just five minutes later the game was as good as over when Clark scored a penalty, awarded after Matt Clarke was sent-off for blocking a goal-bound Mark Ford shot.
After the bright opening the remainder of the half became a tepid affair, although Darlington did force several chances with Craig Liddle, Glenn Naylor and Mark Ford all going close.
The third goal could have demonstrated why Halifax are bottom of the table and could only have been conceded by as poor a side as the Shaymen.
In comical fashion, full-back Mark Jules managed to concede a corner by blasting the ball over the by-line from near the half-way line, and from the resulting flag-kick he failed to clear the ball off the goal-line after Mark Convery's cross was nodded out of the keeper's grasp by Barry Conlon.
That goal sent Neil Redfearn's dazed men to their knees, and four minutes later Mark Ford delivered the knock-out blow when he finished very neatly after meeting Clark's pull-back.
The fact it took Halifax 70 minutes to muster a shot on target was a measure of their blunt display, but this failed to signal a revival and four minutes later Clark was denied his hat-trick when Andy Woodman made an excellent tackle.
Darlington hit the fifth of the game when Mark Sheeran got on the scoresheet with an impressive looping header from a tight angle after getting on the end of Atkinson's cross, but the youngster should've doubled his tally in injury time.
Twelve yards from goal Adam Rundle laid goal number six on a plate for Sheeran but with time and space on his side the striker lofted his strike over the bar.
But Quakers didn't begrudge the miss and were simply grateful for their second win three days after having not won at all in the previous 52 days.
What's that saying about waiting for a bus?
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