Quakers go marching on

They're in fine form at the moment as Noel Blake found to his cost on Saturday. Exeter were sent on the long trip home having been given a sound beating at Feethams, although Darlington never quite reached top gear.

Blake yesterday vacated his position by mutual content with his side sitting bottom of the table having won just once this season.

It was always going to be a tall order for Gary Bennett's side to repeat the form shown in the performance against Leyton Orient last Tuesday, but it is a measure of the quality this season that they managed to score four without reply, despite not quite meeting the new expectation levels.

Quakers couldn't expect to be awarded three points for just turning up; meetings with Lincoln, Carlisle and Torquay this season have proved that sides residing close to the relegation trapdoor are able to cause upsets unless they're dealt with professionally.

And that's how Darlington earned maximum points on Saturday. Assistant manager Mick Tait was a satisfied man, but admitted Darlington were not completely at ease until they scored a second goal.

Quakers opened the scoring with their earliest goal of the season when Richard Hodgson netted his first of the campaign in the fifth minute.

But the remainder of the first half was a tepid affair as both sides failed to mount any sustained period of pressure.

"We played great football on Tuesday and we even said to the players before the game that they're never going to reach that standard again and that we just had to get as close to that standard as possible and we'd win," said Tait.

"It's great to get an early goal to go 1-0 up but you're still anxious, you're still a bit nervous.

"I was saying to Gary all the way through the first half 'we need another goal here, to settle the lads down because they're anxious'."

Hodgson tapped home from close-range in the fifth minute, but creator Danny Mellanby had done all the hard work as he took two Exeter defenders out of the game with a clever turn deep in the box before laying the goal on a plate for Hodgson.

But instead of signalling a barrage of Darlington attacks, 30 minutes passed without incident.

Brian Atkinson, continuing his good form from the Orient game, provided a spark when he cleverly took the ball past a defender before slipping it through to Mellanby but his shot went wide.

Mellanby then put a free header over the bar before Exeter had their first shot on target.

Sean McCarthy, carrying a few extra pounds since his heyday in the First Division, won an aerial duel before turning on the edge of the area to warm Collett's finger tips with a low shot.

Alex Watson provided the second half's first piece of entertainment as he found himself the butt of a needless FA directive. Watson required treatment after going down injured when bringing down the advancing Atkinson, but once a stretcher had arrived, he declared himself fit to continue playing, until the referee ordered otherwise.

The defender was told to lie down on the stretcher, before being carried to the edge of the pitch from where he promptly ran back onto the pitch.

The second Darlington goal, which finally arrived just after the hour-mark was claimed by both Mellanby and Mark Convery but a post-match dressing room debate resolved the issue with the former being awarded the strike.

Arriving in the box from a Hodgson corner, Conlon flicked the ball on to Convery whose effort was turned in from close range by Mellanby who deserved a goal for his efforts in the previous games in which he'd not got on the scoresheet.

But there was no debating the scorer of the third five minutes later as Mellanby latched on to a long ball, shrugged off defenders Dylan Kerr and Graeme Power to fire home.

Ford tapped home from inside the Exeter penalty area for the fourth before Andy Collett added to his book of 'Saves I'd No Right To Make'; spectacularly blocking on the goal-line from Cherif Diallo's point-blank header

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