Darlington's attacking inadequacies were highlighted as they threw away the points against Exeter.

Even after he's gone, Marco Gabbiadini was still causing arguments amongst the fans. Some maintained that he would have scored at least once on Saturday, but remember even his goals dried up near the end of last season.

Maybe Darlington's forwards and attacking midfield chose Saturday to have a dry spell, but they can't afford to miss as many opportunities and still expect to win.

Quakers played some excellent football in the first half but they lacked the killer touch in front of goal.

Several good crosses went into the danger zone, but too often there was nobody with the physical presence to throw themselves at the ball. The fact Quakers' goal was scored by a defender says it all.

It's early days still, of course, but manager Gary Bennett knows what he wants from his forwards and attacking midfield, and you can understand why he's considering signing players with the physical presence of Paul Beavers or the trickery of Lenit Zezu.

They should have had the game won by half time but a mixture of good goalkeeping and poor finishing let them down.

Exeter proved that when you have a good keeper and lady luck on your side, then you can still get something out of games.

Some of the fans were dismayed afterwards, but manager Gary Bennett - who played against his opposite number Noel Blake in an FA Youth Cup final for Manchester City against Aston Villa - pointed out that it was still a good performance, finishing apart.

"If we had scored a second goal, I think we would have gone on to score three or four," said Bennett.

"We had chance after chance after chance, but why couldn't we get a lucky deflection?

"I'm disappointed we didn't stick the ball into the back of the net. I thought the way we played and our workrate were tremendous, and I think the supporters appreciated that. Exeter couldn't handle us in the first half.

"Exeter found us hard to handle, but if we had a couple of men who were prepared to die to get in front of the defenders, the ball would have ended up in the back of the net."

Bennett is hoping to complete the signing of Zezuin the next 48 hours and he said; "From what I've seen of him so far, he could have scored a couple. He's played in three trial games, and scored five times."

Bennett was unhappy with the free kick which led to the equaliser, awarded for a foul by Neil Aspin on Alex Inglethorpe just outside the area, an innocuous looking challenge which also earned the centre half his first yellow card of the season.

"These things are meant to even themselves out over the season, but together with last week, we're two down at the moment. Everybody disputed the free kick."

Quakers played nearly all of the first ten minutes without Craig Liddle, who had to have stitches in an eye injury, and during that time, former Darlington striker Darren Roberts fired straight at Andy Collett.

But then Quakers took command, with some dangerous crosses coming in from both flanks.

They nearly took the lead after five minutes when Exeter, who generously allowed Darlington plenty of space at corner kicks, let Glenn Naylor run at them from a Gary Himsworth corner, and he put a left-foot shot just over the bar.

Himsworth then set up the supporting Paul Heckingbottom to shoot over the top, before Lee Nogan headed into the hands of Arjan Van Heuseden.

Then Heckingbottom popped up to head down a Liddle free kick for Ton Kaak, who is struggling to come to terms with the English league, to poke wide.

After Himsworth had a penalty appeal turned down for a challenge by van Heuseden, Quakers took the lead after 23 minutes with a simple setpiece. Naylor floated the ball to the edge of the six-yard area from where Liddle headed in.

They nearly had another a few minutes later, when Naylor and Elliott cleverly interchanged passes, only for Naylor's diving header to be pushed around the post by van Heuseden.

Naylor should have put Quakers two up after the break, when the ball ran to him off Lee Nogan, but he sidefooted the ball wide.

And Exeter still weren't in the game when Aspin's header was tipped over by the keeper.

Then it all went wrong. Aspin was pulled up at the other end for a challenge on Alex Inglethorpe on the edge of the area, and after the referee had words with Elliott and sub Steve Flack for a shoving match in the wall, Andy Roscoe curled the ball left footed past Collett courtesy of a deflection.

Four minutes later, Roscoe popped up on his own line to block another header from Aspin, before his side nearly snatched the lead when Inglethorpe found himself in plenty of space 12 yards out, but he blazed over.

After Van Heuseden denied Paul Campbell, on for Himsworth, with a flying save, Flack broke clear and should have scored, but his lob went past the post.

Aspin was just wide from 20 yards, and deep into stoppage time, Naylor nodded over