THREE years ago a furious Paolo Di Canio pushed referee Paul Alcock to the ground after a harsh decision led to the Italian being sent off while playing for Sheffield Wednesday against Arsenal.

Shoving him in the chest was the least that the Darlington players, coaching staff, officials and supporters wanted to do to Alcock after he destroyed Saturday afternoon's game with some dreadful decisions.

He reduced the game to a farce when he harshly red-carded both Barry Conlon and Mark Ford in the first half, and followed that up by sending assistant manager Mick Tait to the stands.

While various other misdemeanours were missed, his display was summed up after the game when it emerged Alcock had had to ask an assistant referee whether or not he'd shown Paul Campbell a yellow card.

The Surrey official also admitted he would have booked a Scunthorpe player for deliberate handball - but he didn't know who had committed the offence. Why he didn't consult his assistant on that occasion only he knows.

Following some poor refereeing performances in the top-flight, Alcock was demoted from the Premiership and at Glanford Park he inflicted his unique brand of incompetence to ensure Quakers never had a chance of competing fairly with their hosts.

Both managers were annoyed with Alcock, with Tommy Taylor seriously considering getting the game abandoned by keeping his side in the dressing room at half time. His Scunthorpe counterpart, Brian Laws, persuaded him otherwise.

Despite Alcock's influence, Scunthorpe deserve credit for capitalising on Darlington's numerical disadvantage. After all, Alcock wasn't the one sticking the ball in the back of the net.

Scunthorpe moved the ball around well, utilising the talents of Lee Hodges and Peter Beagrie to great effect.

But Darlington couldn't have chosen a worse day to have two players sent off. Scunthorpe have two of the division's best players in wingers Beagrie and Hodges, who each have the ability to stretch and disorganise the opposition when they're playing against 11 men. So the pair must have thought Christmas had come early when they were presented with a nine-man opposition.

Former Darlington striker Martin Carruthers scored the first of his double in the seventh minute when the ball fell to him close to goal following a Beagrie corner. Had Paul Campbell's effort not been saved two minutes earlier, the whole game would have taken a different route.

Conlon was the first to get the dressing room bath water running when Alcock deemed the Irish striker - starting his first game after suspension following a red card at Shrewsbury - had elbowed Nathan Stanton. Not only did Conlon avoid contact with the full back, but Quakers should have been awarded a free-kick seconds earlier when Ian Clark had taken a blow to his head.

When Campbell began speaking to Tait, who had walked onto the pitch to retrieve the ball, the young midfielder was cautioned. When he asked Acock why he'd been booked, Alcock informed Campbell he'd be sent off if he spoke to the official again.

At the 33 minute mark, as a contest, the match was over. By this stage Steve Torpey's clever backward header - courtesy of a marvellous Beagrie pass - had doubled the Iron's advantage, before Beagrie dispatched a penalty.

For the spot-kick, David Brightwell was adjudged to have brought down Hodges but the fact the linesman - in a better position than Alcock who was on the opposite side of the pitch - didn't flag for a spot-kick suggests Alcock had made yet another mistake.

At this stage the game was at boiling point but Conlon will have had the bath water at just the right temperature, just in time for Ford to make use of the quiet dressing room as Alcock began scribbling once more.

Ford saw red for a foul on Hodges. Admittedly, Ford did leap into his challenge, but he did win the ball, the challenge was not from behind and it was his first foul of the day. However, his reputation for crunching tackles and Hodges' theatrics obviously went against him.

Tait entered the pitch to discuss the decision but Alcock refused to even explain himself and the assistant was promptly dispatched to the stands.

Then, just to prove he could infuriate both sides, Alcock waved play-on when Torpey was tripped in the area by Caldwell.

In first-half injury time Beagrie again created a goal as Carruthers put the seal on a frantic first half with a sublime finish over a stranded Andy Collett from the edge of the penalty area.

With Darlington facing a four-goal mountain and with a two-man numerical disadvantage, the game became a case of damage limitation and their hard work and determination to hold back Scunthorpe paid dividends for the first 21 minutes of the second half - until Gareth Sheldon grabbed the fifth.

The sixth soon followed when Torpey scored a header, as did Richard Kell, and these two strikes sandwiched Quakers' only goal. It was produced through sheer persistence and the mental-toughness, so vital in Taylor's teams, brought Quakers' consolation. Ian Clark and Phil Brumwell worked their way through Scunthorpe's midfield to set-up Dan Chillingworth to score.

Chillingworth hadn't made the starting line-up and neither did Neil Wainwright, who wasn't in the squad at all as Taylor rested the former Sunderland winger, saying he had worked hard in recent games.

Late on, Torpey quite clearly punched the ball into the net from a Beagrie free-kick, but the tall striker escaped a mandatory yellow card, with Alcock - who was constantly reminded of the Di Canio incident by incensed Darlington fans - claiming he hadn't noticed the identity of the guilty party.

With referees' assessor Will Burns in the stands, Alcock's tenure as a Football League referee must now be brought into question. He really was that bad.

Read more about Darlington FC here.