RELIEVED Torquay boss Roy McFarland yesterday held his hands up and admitted: "We didn't deserve to win.''

Darlington can't say they controlled Saturday's game but Quakers certainly didn't deserve to return from Devon empty-handed.

The ex-Derby and Cambridge boss saw his team come from a goal behind to take all three points, the winner being an injury-time strike from Mark Nicholls who pounced to prod home the ball after Brian Atkinson had headed against his own post.

"I may be smiling because I'm happy with the three points but I'm also conscious that Darlington deserved something out of the game," said McFarland whose team had just taken their second three-point haul of the season.

"I think a draw would've been a fair result. I think after our second half performance we deserved a point but I felt sorry for Gary and I felt sorry for his team because I thought his team performed well.

"They came here and worked us hard and made it very difficult for us."

Quakers' three one-on-one chances all should've resulted in the Torquay keeper having to pick the ball out of the net, and thus, condemned the home side to defeat, but McFarland said: "In the second half we had to go for it, we had to leave holes at the back which allowed Darlington in, but luckily for us Kevin Dearden has made two magnificent saves and had Darlington took either of them they'd have won the game.

"The big lad up front (Barry Conlon) caused us quite a few problems but maybe they need a little more strike force around him to be a little bit more committed and get beyond the opposition's defenders.

"When they did that, and stroked the ball through a couple of times Darlington just needed to finish them moves off.

"We are very, very fortunate to have got three points out of the game."

Tomorrow night Quakers play host to last season's beaten Third Division play-off finalists when Leyton Orient visit Feethams (7.30pm) with Bennett's squad hit by injury.

David Brightwell broke a toe in training last week and failed to recover in time for Saturday, allowing Alex Jeannin the chance to claim a first-team place, while Neil Wainwright (groin infection) and Mark Convery (blisters) all missed Saturday's game.

However, Paul Heckingbottom came through his first start of the season unscathed as he returned to his left-back berth, allowing Simon Betts to switch to his more accustomed right-sided role with Steve Harper dropping to the bench.

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