Since the beginning of the term Darlington have been in decline and Saturday's defeat at home to lowly Torquay was without doubt the low of the season.

Make no doubt about it: Darlington were dire.

Torquay snatched all three points with a deserved 3-1 win with midfielder Alex Russell scoring all three Gulls goals.

Roy McFarland's side weren't the best team Quakers have faced this season, but Darlington were so bad it was simply inevitable the opposition would win.

Quakers were a dis-jointed side from the first whistle, and by full-time Darlington supporters in the Tin Shed end were singing: "What a load of rubbish." They were spot on.

Torquay took the lead on 24 minutes when Russell fired into an empty net after keeper Keith Finch raced from his area to make a clearance but his kick rebounded off Richard Logan into the path of Russell who opened the scoring from 30 yards.

They doubled their advantage on the hour as Russell was afforded time and space to head past Finch, but nine minutes later Ian Clark reduced the advantage as he finished clinically when presented with a one-on-one opportunity.

However, Darlington's fading hopes of grabbing a point were dashed in injury time when Finch hauled down Efion Williams in the penalty area and Russell converted the resulting spot-kick to clinch his hat-trick.

A small group of supporters remained in the Tin Shed following the final whistle and protested their disapproval as they sang: "Where's your money gone?", in reference to chairman George Reynolds' reluctance to spend money on bringing in new players.

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