Lowe goal sinks Quakers

Quakers have now taken just two points from the last 30 available in away League games, and frustrated followers of Darlington on the road, as well as management duo Tommy Taylor and Mick Tait, are beginning to wonder where their next away point is coming from.

If football wasn't as harsh a game as it can be, Darlington would've returned from Nene Park with a deserved point. But it was the hosts who snatched all three and, not for the first time this season, Quakers returned home pointless having put in a performance worthy of a point.

However, it shouldn't be misunderstood that Darlington have played particularly well in these away games, in fact, Quakers haven't always managed more than one shot on target during a game, while on opposition soil.

But thoughout the majority of the last five away games, the defeat at Kidderminster being the exception, Darlington have frustrated and contained the hosts and, as a result, deserved a point, but have been sent back home pointless, except from Cheltenham where Darlington ground out a goalless draw.

At Plymouth, Bristol Rovers and now Rushden, Darlington have matched their hosts and a draw would certainly have been a fair result on Saturday and that would've extended Darlington's unbeaten League run to five games.

But instead, Darlington are left wondering how teams as weak as Rushden are in with a good chance of reaching the play-offs.

It wasn't difficult to see how Hartlepool put five past Rushden last week because Brian Talbot's side lacked any attacking punch and as a result, Quakers were rarely threatened and keeper Keith Finch had little to do.

But that in itself says a lot about Darlington's own potency in front of goal which, as in many previous away games this season, amounted to very little.

Assistant Tait admitted Darlington posed little in attack, and pin-pointed this as Quakers' downfall.

"The away record is awful. On our performances, we don't deserve to have the away record we've got, but it's the goals that count," he said.

"We've done pretty well away from home in the last four or five away games but we haven't got what we've deserved. But that's the way it goes if you don't score goals. Before today we weren't scoring, and although we got one today, that wasn't enough.

"Kidderminster was the only game that we really deserved to lose, we've done enough to get a point, or even three points, in some of these away games.

"At half-time we were 1-0 down and they'd hardly been in our half, it was unbelievably disappointing to be a goal down at half-time.

"Over the 90 minutes we deserve to have won the game but unless you score more goals, you're always likely to concede one. They put a couple of good corners in and caused us a few problems but our keeper hasn't had a save to make.

"We were confident going in to the game today, and I think the lads approached it the right way, and with a little bit of luck we could've taken all three points."

For the majority of the game, Rushden and Darlingon cancelled each other out as neither side looked capable of taking control of a scrappy game which, like the sides' 0-0 bore draw at Feethams earlier in the season, neither entertained or gave visiting supporters value for money at £11 a seat.

Although never as dull as September's draw, the game, and especially the first half, lacked any flow as players on each side seemed incapable of stringing passes together, so the arrival of the fire brigade at half-time provided some light relief.

The emergency service was required to extinguish a fire in one of the floodlight pylons and although the fire was not visible to the crowd, it did put that floodlight out of action and meant one corner of the ground was very dark for the second half, but referee Brian Curson deemed the conditions bright enough not to abandon the game.

And at half-time the man most pleased with Mr Curson's decision was Rushden's Paul Hall because, otherwise, his fantastic strike would've been scrapped from the record books.

The Jamaican international picked the ball up from Tarkan Mustafa on the right-wing and cut inside before firing a tremendous left-footed shot into the top corner from around 25 yards to give his side the lead in first-half injury time.

It was harsh on Darlington who'd done no less, but admittedly, no more than Rushden in a tame first half.

But Quakers levelled the scores ten minutes into the second half following a sustained period of pressure which saw both Barry Conlon and Mark Ford manage shots on target while Mustafa almost conceded a penalty when the ball struck his arm but the referee deemed his action as accidental.

Captain Craig Liddle headed Darlington back on level terms when he converted Ian Clark's pin-point corner which, wind-assisted, curled in towards goal where Liddle nodded past Billy Turley.

Just over ten minutes later Clark attempted the same corner and this time it almost directly flew into the net, but Turley managed to tip it over the bar.

Although hardly breath-taking, the second period was more lively than the first 45 minutes with Darlington the most likely to take the lead, so it was tough luck on Quakers when Onandi Lowe wrapped-up the points for the hosts with 12 minutes remaining.

A Hall corner drifted in to Barry Hunter at the near post who flicked the ball on to Lowe who scored for the fifth consecutive game at Nene Park.

However, Hunter's flick-on could've been prevented had Clark adhered to pre-match orders, but the utility player held his hands up afterwards and admitted he should've challenged Hunter and cleared the ball before it could reach Lowe.

Tait said: "We always have someone at the near post to take care of that low ball that can come in, and when it came in, Clarky didn't move and their lad has ran past him and got a touch on it."

Although Mark Sheeran has done his best to readdress the balance recently with two, late winning goals, Lowe's strike on Saturday was the 15th Darlington have conceded in the last 15 minutes of games this season, a total which is more than double the amount of goals conceded during any other quarter-of-an-hour spell.

Among those 15 goals are the late winners scored by Plymouth and Bristol Rovers, both of which were bitterly disappointing results, despite having matched their opponents for most of the game. Yet again, Darlington fell to the same fate on Saturday.

Darlington's next opportunity to double this season's away win tally comes at Carlisle on Tuesday night.

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