Darlington 2 - 0 Wrexham

New season, new players and a new determination that drove Darlington to a deserved opening day victory. It's too early to read much into just one game, but despite the dangers of building a side from scratch, the very early signs are promising.

Bringing in so many players in one summer is a risk. Not only because they could falter as they attempt to build an understanding on the pitch, but they could also struggle to foster the vital team ethic and togetherness that is so vital in any team sport.

But on the evidence of Saturday's showing, when seven players made their debuts, Darlington have already developed a collective determination and it carried them to the three points against Wrexham.

Dave Penney's side led through Kevin McBride's debut goal but with half an hour to go goalkeeper Andy Oakes was sent-off.

At 1-0 down, but facing opposition down to ten men and with plenty of time on the clock, Wrexham sensed a recovery.

However, as is sometimes the case when a team is handicapped by the loss of a player, Darlington garnered enough will to win to overcome the deficiency in numbers and ended 2-0 victors with Julian Joachim bagging the second.

But even before kick-off supporters may have suspected a new-found togetherness. Many of the Darlington team took to the field sporting closely-cropped new haircuts after, it appeared, a team-bonding ritual of sorts.

Tommy Wright had already returned for pre-season with the SAS-look, and on Saturday Ricky Ravenhill, Gregg Blundell and Steve Foster had clearly had the razor out too.

With, Tim Ryan, Joachim and new recruit Chis Palmer already sporting near skinheads, the team were fearsome-looking and even Martin Smith and John Brackstone, sat in the stands on Saturday, have undergone impromptu makeovers.

Whatever the reasons for the new appearances, Penney admits that his squad, despite all the new arrivals, have already fostered a togetherness that is essential, as demonstrated in the second half on Saturday.

"I think the team spirit has to be good when you go down to ten men. You've got to stick together and help each other out," he said.

"It was important they stuck together to grind out a result when they were down to ten men.

"I don't know if the haircuts are anything to do with any kind of ritual. All I know is that Tommy has had it like that for a while and after training on Friday I saw Ricky Ravenhill getting all his hair shaved off too.

"It's what it's all about when you're a group of players and you could see when Kevin scored the first goal I think the entire team were in the corner of the pitch celebrating together.

"There's still a lot more to come from us on the pitch, but off the pitch they have mixed very well."

The highly-charged second half featured a red card, a goal, a superb Pawel Abbott 'goal' ruled out for offside and saw tempers flare. It was the perfect antidote to an uneventful first half.

But there was something of a first thanks to Danny Williams' stupidity. He wrote his name into the Arena record books when he scored the stadium's first ever goal for Kidderminster three years ago.

And on Saturday he became surely the first ever player to be stupid enough to earn a booking by kneeing a player, Wright, in the back as he got back to his feet - directly in front of the referee. Very clever.

The game gradually clicked into gear with Abbott creating the first goal. He dug out enough space to curl a cross from the right onto the head of McBride to steer past former Hartlepool keeper Anthony Williams.

At last there was a game on and the second half was a much more entertaining affair, full of incident.

The first major one being ex-Darlington defender Richard Hope elbowing Wright in the head and getting away with it. Perhaps it was retribution. As Penney said later, Wright "likes to get stuck in".

Quakers were on top but suddenly they were down to ten men. Wrexham striker Michael Proctor had found himself one-on-one with Oakes and poked it past the onrushing keeper who then scythed him down on the edge of the penalty area.

A clear red card and a terrible debut for Oakes. And, on a personal note at least, his day worsened as reserve keeper David Stockdale was superb.

He dived full-length to deny Proctor from the resulting free-kick and it was shortly 2-0. Joachim left Hope for dead with a great burst of speed before arrowing a shot into the top corner.

The goal helped out Darlington enormously. Just as Wrexham suspected they could recover, they were suddenly 2-0 down and up against a stubbornly resolute rearguard led by the imperious Foster.

Thanks largely to the captain and Stockdale, who late on superbly saved Shaun Pejic's powerful downward header, Darlington closed out the game to get their season off to the ideal start.