It only takes a second to score a goal, but Darlington have managed it just once in more than seven hours of football, and that was a penalty, so it is not difficult to see where their problems lie.

Saturday's defeat - described as 'inept' by assistant manager Mark Proctor - means Quakers have now won just once in their last eight games.

It was a reminder of last season's inconsistency with good performances followed by bad.

This season has not quite mimicked that pattern but just over a week ago Quakers overcame Macclesfield with a performance worthy of more than just a single goal. They failed to score more a week last Friday because they were wasteful in front of goal but on Saturday Darlington rarely created any chances to waste.

It was their worst performance of the season and the absence of Anthony Peacock and Carlos Logan through injury was no coincidence. The midfielders are Quakers' most effective players in the final third and add a much-needed cutting edge.

Simon Johnson is very quick so always looks dangerous but he loses possession too easily while Neil Wainwright's crossing is not his strong point. Individually the likes of Matty Appleby, Adrian Webster, Stephen Thomas and Joey Hutchinson are good players but collectively they are not going to open up defences, even against an average Bury side against whom three points were there for the taking.

In 19th place before the game, the Shakers never lived up to the most inaccurate nickname in football which does not say a lot for the Quakers. So bad was the performance that some fans were even jeering David Hodgson - not too long ago that prospect was almost unthinkable.

The players must take some responsibility too but perhaps the fans' catcalling was merely a reaction made in anger during an uninspiring, ugly Darlington performance certainly not worth the extortionate £18 fee supporters were robbed of.

After the game Hodgson, never one to keep his feelings to himself, was too busy going ballistic in the dressing room for the post-match interviews which left his number two to issue an apology to the unfortunate 459 fans who made the mistake of travelling to Gigg Lane.

Proctor said: "It was an inept performance that was not acceptable.

"On the behalf of the football club I want to apologise to the fans. There were a lot of fans today, they came down to support us in great numbers but we didn't give them anything to shout about.

"It was very, very poor.

"We came into the game with buoyancy and confidence but then turned in a performance like that which is unacceptable - I just can't understand it because we prepared for this game the same as we did for the Macclesfield game.

"We had one or two moments, Guy had a couple of shots in the first half but over the 90 minutes it was very, very disappointing - too many players weren't at the races mentally or physically."

It was at Bury last season when, with Hodgson at home ill, Proctor was left in charge as Quakers changed to 4-4-2 and won 1-0. With Hutchinson in midfield on Saturday, Darlington played the numbers game again, this time dumping 4-4-2 and opting for 4-5-1 which had worked to good effect in the 0-0 draw at Northampton Town a fortnight ago.

But with referee Andy Hall doing his utmost to kill any impetus in the game by blowing up for the slightest of contacts, the game began in neutral, never got into first gear and Darlington stalled in the 20th minute.

Guylain-Ndumbu-Nsungu operated as a lone striker with, in theory, support from Johnson and Wainwright and Darlington's best two chances fell to the Congolese striker inside the first 20 minutes. The first, an acrobatic volley from a Wainwright cross saved by Neil Edwards and the second a shot dragged wide from 18 yards after David Duke's cross rolled across the penalty area.

For the remainder of the game an unimaginative Darlington played lots of short, pretty passes inside their own half from defence to midfield, back to defence and back to the keeper - all of which got Quakers absolutely nowhere.

Keeping possession is never a bad thing but when a team does it in its own half then they are only inviting pressure. At Northampton and at home to Macclesfield, Darlington played in their opponents' half and in doing so looked much more likely to score. Then again, Peacock was playing in those two matches.

Striker Matthew Tipton was a target of Hodgson's during the summer and a goal for him would have been typical of the day. His best chance came in the first half when he forced his way past Matt Clarke but shot straight at Sam Russell before Dwayne Mattis volleyed over as Bury looked increasingly likely to open the scoring.

They finally did so ten minutes before the break when Shelton Martis was caught flat-footed on the halfway line and allowed debutant Nicky Adams to latch on to a through-ball. The teenager scored after calmly dribbling around Russell who was too slow off his line.

Just to compound the misery, Duke was carried off just before half-time with an ankle injury and will be missing for a month.

At the break Darlington switched to 3-5-2 with Hutchinson dropping back into defence but there was no upturn in fortunes while Clarke was fortunate not be sent off when he he was the last defender and tripped Tipton.

Substitute Akpo Sodje blasted an ambitious shot high and wide from 30 yards and Webster headed straight at the keeper as a one-paced Quakers continually disappointed but Bury fans were so jubilant some were doing the conga. There might have been a pitch invasion had Stuart Barlow not missed a great chance late on.

Had Quakers been up against a decent side they would have lost by two or three and then the travelling fans' cries of "Hodgy what's the score?" would have been even more poignant, especially with chairman Stewart Davies present at Gigg Lane.

Result: Bury 1, Darlington 0.

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