Darlington boss Tommy Taylor last night rubbished reports linking him with the vacant mangers' job at former club, Cambridge United.

Jon Beck resigned from the Abbey Stadium last week, and the local paper quoted the United chairman as saying Taylor was in the frame.

The Cambridge Evening News reported Reg Smart saying: "We had six inquiries within the first few hours of the announcement. And there were some very interesting names among them.

"Tommy Taylor, our former manager, has been in touch through his agent, but I don't want to name any of the others.

"We'll be bearing them in mind, but we are going to give John Taylor and Dale Brooks every chance of making a go of it."

But 48 hours after seeing his side thrashed 7-1 at Scunthorpe, Taylor slammed the reports, saying: "I have not spoken to anyone down there. It's rubbish.

"My son lives down there and he tells me it's been on the back pages that I'm their No 1 target but I haven't seen, or had any contact with Cambridge.

"I did quite well with them before so that's probably why I'm being mentioned."

The reports came prior to Taylor's worst result, either as a player or a manger, and the defeat was Darlington's worst since January 1973 - a 7-0 mauling at home to Southport.

Two weeks earlier, manager Ralph Brand had claimed: "At least that'll never happen again," after his team had been beaten 7-0 at Bradford. On Saturday, Taylor avoided any such forecasts, with referee Paul Alcock firmly at the centre of his attentions.

After a first 45 minutes in which Barry Conlon and Mark Ford received controversial red cards - which Darlington plan to appeal against - assistant manager Mick Tait was sent to the stands for leaving his technical area, and David Brightwell was harshly adjudged to have conceded a penalty, Taylor wasn't in the best of moods at the interval.

Until Scunthorpe manager Brian Laws calmed the situation, Taylor, so infuriated with the referee, wanted to keep his players in the dressing room. Having changed his mind, Taylor then sought out Alcock to discuss the frantic first period.

"I banged on the door for about three minutes and there were stewards there saying I couldn't speak to him. When he eventually popped his round the door he asked what it was about and said he'd talk as long as it wasn't about the sendings-off or the penalty.

"I was thinking, why should more players get booked or sent off just because the referee isn't doing his job? I just thought 'is it worth taking my team out there if they're just going to get booked or sent off?'

"I told him that if anyone got booked or sent-off in the second half, I'd take my players off the pitch. And in the second half nobody got booked or sent off.

"I said to the players at half-time that the game was over, let's go out there and be professional. Don't speak to the referee whatever happens.

"I hope he never referees again, not just our games, but anybody's matches. He was like a drama queen all day."

Alcock said Conlon used an elbow when challenging Nathan Stanton, while he believed Ford's challenge on Lee Hodges required no explanation.

Taylor defended his players, saying: "Barry went up to win the ball and the referee said he put an elbow in Stanton's face. Their boy stood there, rubbing his head and that was enough for the referee.

"Fordy came from the side and won the ball clean. Hodges went over, but with the force of that kind of tackle he's bound to go down. I know the boy Hodges and he dives for anything."

Hodges won Scunthorpe's penalty when Brightwell, who appeared to have conceded only a corner, was adjudged to have tripped the fleet-footed winger.

Taylor said: "I know little Hodgy well, I know he invites people to have a go at him. The ball was knocked away for a corner and he still had a little dive.

"The referee was 25-30 yards away from the ball."

Despite the numerical disadvantage, Taylor remained disapointed with his team.

"For every one of their goals we gave the ball away," he said. "Even though we had nine men we should be on people's shoulders. Beagrie got a lot of crosses in but only because we gave the ball away. But the boys worked hard so I didn't have a go."

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