AFTER having, what he believed to be, his goal taken away from him on Saturday, Mark Convery awaits his first strike in a Darlington shirt.

The Newcastle-born midfielder thought he'd got his name on the scoresheet when Darlington notched second of the afternoon against Exeter, but it later transpired Danny Mellanby had managed to get the final touch, depriving Convery of his magic moment.

"I ran back down the pitch celebrating because I thought it was mine," said the 20-year-old who joined Quakers from Sunderland in January.

"It would've been my first League goal so I'm gutted but at least it went in and that's the main thing."

No matter who scored the goal, it was vital Darlington nabbed a second because it killed off any threat of Exeter grabbing an equaliser.

"I don't think we played as well as Tuesday but the goals came at the right time so it took the pressure off" said Convery.

"The manager has told us that we've got to finish off the chances that we're getting and we've been starting to do it since the Torquay game because we've got seven in the last two games.

"I think the way they played suited us because they wanted to play it long so it gave us the chance to get the ball down and play, and once the second one went in, we knew they weren't going to score two goals past us."

Midfield dynamo Mark Ford was just as disappointed as Convery that Mellanby was credited with the goal, because it means he has to share the club's leading scorer honour.

"Unfortunately, it's going to have to go to Danny because that puts him on four as well," he said.

The ex-Torquay captain is enjoying a prolific spell in front of goal; the goal on Saturday was his fourth of the season and came just seven days after a superb strike at Torquay.

And after missing a penalty in the midweek win over Leyton Orient, he was more satisfied than most to see the ball hit the net against Exeter; whose fans love to hate the Pontefract-born midfielder. "Well, I've been watching Veron at Manchester with my season ticket and taken some tips!", he said.

"I've got a bit of a history with Exeter. Last year I got fined £500 by the FA for celebrating a goal against for against Exeter for Torquay so I thought it was nice to score a goal on Saturday.''

The 'history' being Ford greeted a Torquay goal against their Devon rivals, Exeter by saluting the Grecians' fans with one-fingered salute.

It could be argued that Quakers got the result on Saturday they would have earned against Torquay had they put their chances away at Plainmoor. Darlington are creating plenty of scoring opportunities but only in the last two games have they converted them.

Ford said: "It was satisfying to get in a comfortable position because we've worked so hard in the last few games and we were a bit tired towards the end.

"We need to beat these sort of teams, the Torquay's and the likes of Carlisle at home. It's disappointing when you're dropping points and today was a bit of banana skin.

"They had a go, they had three up front when they could've sat deep but they got the result they deserved in the end."

Exeter were Quakers' fifth home League opponents and became the fourth to not to score as Darlington begin to turn Feethams into something of a fortress.