FOLLOWING Saturday's mauling at Scunthorpe, one Darlington fan called radio station, talkSPORT to protest that some of the Darlington team should be transfer-listed for being on the end of a 7-1 hammering.

Clearly, 'Graham from Darlington' hadn't considered how tough it was for nine men to combat the threat of Lee Hodges and Peter Beagrie.

Perhaps Graham was still bitter about Scunthorpe charging visiting fans a pound more than the home supporters, especially so if he was one of the 87 Darlington fans who were also charged a ridiculous £13 to watch Quakers lose 3-0 at Glandford Park in the LDV Vans Trophy last month.

No matter how annoyed Graham was, he can't have been as annoyed as the Quakers players who were incensed with referee Paul Alcock.

Mark Ford, who was red-carded for a foul in the first half , blasted Alcock, saying: "The lads worked their socked off today and even though we've had red cards, they weren't for something stupid. We were sent off by an incompetent referee.

"I thought I took the ball. If you look where the ball went after I went through, I took the man after the ball, and that's a tackle.

"The manager thought we were cheated out of the game. My sending-off was very harsh. Even if I'd been booked I'd have been disappointed.

"We were tempted to get the game abandoned so we had to play them again. Use both subs, then have a couple of injuries or get someone else sent off to go down to seven."

Ian Clark put in a non-stop performance as Darlington struggled to cope against a barrage of attacks, and admitted he could have become the third Quaker to see red.

"You get annoyed and you want to smack players but then you'd get sent off yourself and we'd have been down to eight," said Clark who was playing only his second game since arriving from Hartlepool. "You have to keep your discipline. We had to work hard for each other, all nine of us did. There's no point singling people out and blaming Fordy and Barry.

"In the first one, their lad came though the back of me to start with. Why he sent Barry off, I don't know.

"For the second, Fordy's put in a great challenge and I don't know why he's sent him off. The referee was a law unto himself today."

Clark paid tribute to his new set of supporters who backed their side throughout.

"They were absolutely superb. I've played for some bad fans and today the Darlington fans were superb. They could have got on our backs and started slaughtering us but they were superb so special praise to them.

"They've paid their money and I feel sorry for them. When they came down here they were let down by the referee. He spoiled the game."

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