DARLINGTON boss Tommy Taylor admits he fears the worst.

Just weeks ago Darlington were hanging on to the promotion dream as they chased the last remaining play-off berth.

And although that dream always seemed unlikely, even the biggest doubters couldn't have envisaged an end of season relegation scrap.

And for the first time Taylor has confessed sights are now firmly set on avoiding relegation to the Nationwide Conference.

Defeat on Saturday at York was Quakers' ninth match without a win and came as bottom club Halifax Town launched their mission impossible act with a second three-point haul within a week.

Although Quakers still hold an 11-point advantage over the bottom side and another five teams are sandwiched between Darlington and the Shaymen, Taylor admits the prospect of relegation is becoming more likely.

He said: "I told the boys in the changing room straight after the game if Halifax have won we're in a dogfight. They'll be fighting for their lives and we've got to fight for our lives too.

"We could dragged in to it, Halifax have won again so they are three points closer. We've got to battle away to get points and if that means 1-1 draws so be it.

"We've got seven games left and we need three wins from those games and we've got to them somehow."

Up until the end of October Quakers were in the top ten, but Taylor had some cautionary words for anyone taking the prospect of relegation lightly: "Nobody is too good to go down - nobody."

Last year Barnet dropped into the Conference on the last day of the season after wining just two of their last 17 games.

A frighteningly alarming statistic is that Darlington are on course for a similar sequence as, with seven games to play, Quakers have won just one of their last ten games.

In order to match Barnet's record, Darlington must win just one more game this season, but worryingly the miserable run shows no signs of coming to an end.

Last season Darlington's worst sequence without a win stretched to seven games, while the club record is 19, which was chalked up during 1988 - a year later Quakers dropped into the Conference.

Read more about the Quakers here.