Darlington'S battle against relegation intensified after a blank weekend saw them drop a further place towards the bottom of the football league.

Quakers game with Shrewsbury was postponed just 20 minutes before kick off on Saturday - and with Torquay winning at Lincoln, and Exeter drawing with Macclesfield, they slipped to fifth from bottom, only three points above Exeter.

The decision by referee Philip Joslin to wait until 2.40pm before calling the game off was criticised by football director Luke Raine.

"The postponement had nothing to do with the club," said Raine. "The referee should have called the game off at 1pm because of all the surface water on the pitch."

Joslin could have saved a lot of frustration if he had gone to the trouble of phoning the Met Office - just as referee Ron Harris had done at Exeter - instead of waiting until just before kick-off to postpone the game when there were fans in the ground.

After a frustrating weekend Darlington will start this week by increasing efforts to bring in new blood to Feethams.

Raine added: "We are fully aware that the prime concern of the club is to stay in the Third Division.

"We know that we have made mistakes this season, and they'll be rectified.

"I must thank the fans for their tolerance, and I can assure them that we're trying to get the season back on track.

"Our search for players won't cease. The possible signing of Daniel Amokachi was not a fairy tale - it almost became a reality until last Sunday night. It is players of that standard which we need at the moment, and we are looking for them.

"We are still confident that we'll stay in this league."

Manager Gary Bennett, who was set to play Paul Beavers up front from the start against Shrewsbury, said: "We start again on Monday to bring in new players.

"We will be looking at the situation with Hull, and finding out whether anything has changed with the players we are after.

"But I've also got my eye on a couple of other players, so hopefully we can sort something out."

Three hours of heavy rain on Saturday morning after the covers were removed, clearly made the groundstaff's task even harder, but at 1pm referee Joslin said he was satisfied with the conditions, and again at 1.45pm, even though more heavy rain was falling.

"There wasn't a problem at 1.00," said Joslin.

"Again, there was no problem at 1.30, and at 2.15 when I took a ball out on to the pitch, the ball was rolling OK.

"But at 2.30, the ball wouldn't move, and that was when I called the two managers together and postponed the game.

"I can understand people's frustration, but the conditions were the worst I've ever seen."

Darlington groundsman Andrew Thompson said: "There isn't a pitch in the country which could have coped with that downpour. It wouldn't have got any better, and if the match was played, the pitch would have been a lot worse for the rest of the season."

Shrewsbury have made seven visits to Darlington in the last three seasons and four of those have been wasted because of waterlogged pitches.

Fans who bought tickets for Saturday's game will be able to use them for the re-arranged game, although some were annoyed that they couldn't obtain an immediate cash refund.

Darlington are now facing a huge fixture backlog. Unless Shrewsbury agree to come to Feethams on Tuesday February 27 - their next feasible midweek date - then it will be early April before they will make the trip from Shropshire. Quakers have every midweek date booked in March.

Saturday's postponement also means that defender Craig Liddle's suspension will be carried forward to this Saturday's game at Barnet.

lDarlington skipper Martin Gray was presented with LDV Team of the Round Trophy for their 4-0 win at York City in January.

lDarlington reserves take on Halifax in the Avon Insurance League Cup at Feethams tonight (7.00), weather permitting.