The notion that the Premiership's bubble has finally burst has been football's only talking point of the last week, but it's not just at the top end of the ladder that entertainment is sparse.

Ask the 172 hardy souls who made the five-hour trip to Bristol from Darlington on Saturday if they feel they received good value for their £15 admission fee, plus travelling costs.

Saturday's first away defeat of the season means that's now two points in 12 as Quakers sink into the bottom half of the table for the first time since November.

More worryingly Darlington's encouraging start to the season is now officially over.

Richard Walker's strike in first-half injury-time, seconds after a Quakers corner, proved enough for a Bristol Rovers side which had not won at home all season and had sacked manager Ian Atkins on Thursday. Darlington are now a shadow of the team which started the season so well.

Those three wins and two draws from the first six games seem a long way away because the momentum has gone. There had been signs Quakers were on the wane which is why David Hodgson changed the formation to something you're more likely to see at Stamford Bridge than Darlington.

Out went 4-4-2 in favour of a daring 4-3-3 with Joey Hutchinson, usually a central-defender, playing the Claude Makelele role in front of the back four, while Guylain Ndumbu-Ndsungu made his first start to the right of Akpo Sodje in a three-pronged attack.

Down the left, Carlos Logan did his best Damien Duff impression, while Anthony Peacock was given the Joe Cole role in midfield, asked to run with the ball and create chances for the forwards.

That was the theory anyway and on paper was at times the only place the new formation looked like working.

Hodgson was reasonably happy with the performance and insists the surprising switch was to instil an attack-minded belief into his players.

However, it's not escaped anyone's notice that 4-3-3 also accommodates out of form duo Matt Clarke and Simon Johnson.

Johnson has failed to deliver, while captain Clarke's individual, unforced errors continued at the Memorial Ground.

Hodgson has loyally stood by both, however he has options which he could be tempted to use if results do not improve.

Hodgson said: "How can we go from being very confident, playing good football, to losing that overnight?

"I know from my own time as a footballer that when you're playing well you keep on playing well but in our case it was that stupid performance at Mansfield that has damaged everything.

"I was thinking, how can I kick-start us? We had gone a bit stale in recent games in a 4-4-2 so I had to get something into the players' heads to make them believe, to give them the confidence to be offensive-minded and win games.

"I do not want to take Simon out of the starting XI because I think he has so much more to offer. Experience tells me that if you stick with people they can turn things around if you believe in them."

The 4-3-3 should work and for small periods it did. It also did in the closing stages at Mansfield, when Darlington salvaged a draw, while using Hutchinson at the axis of midfield should play to his strengths; breaking up attacks and playing the ball out of defence.

However, if attackers do not help out defensively the formation asks a lot of the midfield, as shown when left-sided Logan found himself defending in the right-back area early on.

Peacock played some accurate balls to Sodje, who in the first half appealed for a penalty that Hodgson was adamant Quakers should have been given. However, Steve Elliott's challenge may have been strong but it was also well-timed.

This briefly gave the game some spark and minutes later every player plus all three officials raced to a flare-up after Peacock was stamped on by James Hunt. Astoundingly Hunt got away with only a booking and was later, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, named as the sponsors' Man of the Match.

Rugby is also played at the Memorial Ground and Hodgson bemoaned the length of the grass which only hindered Darlington.

Their best first half chances came from set-pieces with Martis heading a Logan corner over and from another Logan flag kick Sodje was unfortunate not score, Scott Shearer making a good save low to his right.

Ironically it was from a Quakers corner that Rovers scored the only goal, breaking away down the left after Peacock's shot was charged down. Junior Agogo raced into a good position and passed to strike-partner Walker who placed a measured shot past Sam Russell to give the scoreline an unjust reflection. Neither team deserved to be ahead.

With the crowd behind them and the confidence of the one-goal lead, Rovers stepped it up in the second half and with Darlington losing the midfield battle it was almost 2-0 when Russell came out of his area and misjudged a long ball, however, Clarke's pace meant he was able to stop Agogo.

Within minutes Sodje missed two simple chances to equalise. First a header from a Peacock cross and the second a free header from substitute Neil Wainwright.

In the closing stages the game livened up and more chances were created with Wainwright lively on the right, however, with the out of favour Clyde Wijnhard not even on the bench and all Hodgson's replacements midfielders, he was soon pushed up front when Sodje was injured.

Clarke saw a header go over the bar and Ndumbu-Nsungu flashed a volley inches wide, while Rovers had a good shout for a penalty, probably more credible than Sodje's.

Given that Rovers axed their manager 48-hours beforehand perhaps it was inevitable that Quakers would lose, while Hodgson said Rovers' unexpected change of formation also affected Quakers.

They dumped 5-3-2 in favour of 4-4-2 and caretaker boss Paul Trollope explained: "We've got the players that can play 4-4-2, and if it means you have more players in their natural positions then you are going to produce better football."

Martis has finally moved to his natural position, now only time will tell whether Hutchinson as midfielder proves to be his natural position.

Result: Bristol Rovers 1, Darlington 0.

Read more about the Quakers here.