NO hotel stay for away games, no fertiliser for the pitch, no goals on Saturday and now no chance of the play-offs?

Possibly, but when your leading scorer has the ball only six yards from goal but prods it straight at the keeper you just know it is not going to be your day.

That is what nine-goal Liam Hatch did midway through the first half on Saturday, spurning a golden opportunity against Morecambe to reach double figures for the season.

Had Hatch scored, and most at The Northern Echo Darlington Arena must have assumed he would, then Quakers would surely have gone on to record a win that would have kept faint play-off hopes alive.

Morecambe had chances of their own but none so clear cut as Hatch’s, while Ian Miller was unable to convert two early headers and Danny Carlton was also guilty of a miss.

Pawel Abbott was denied by a tremendous Barry Roche save midway through a second half that ended with the striker screwing wide.

The misses left Darlington ruing a lack of composure in front of goal.

“I thought we had the better of the game and the better chances, certainly in the first half,” said manager Dave Penney, who says Quakers cannot afford to re-seed or fertilise their bare playing surface.

“You don’t get many better chances than Liam’s. Danny had one too, and then Pav had a good one right at the end.

“We were the better side but just couldn’t get that goal, we lacked a cutting edge.”

Disappointed though they may have been with the draw, they could take consolation in the fact 12 other teams have also recently failed to beat Morecambe, who have put together some impressive form.

Darlington’s has not been bad either, with three wins in four before Saturday, when they recorded a fourth clean sheet in their last five matches.

On his full debut, keeper Przemyslaw Kazimierczak was a key factor, appearing very comfortable aside from one hairy moment in the first half.

Shrimps striker Rene Howe fell under the Polish keeper’s challenge, but no penalty was given, at which point Howe must have realised, like Hatch, it was not to be his day either.

The heavyweight striker had already hit the Darlington crossbar with an overhead kick and before the break saw Kazimierczak impressively push away a powerful angled drive.

A replacement for the injured Andy Oakes, the Pole is playing as an indirect result of administration as, were it not for the financial crisis, Dean Gerken would most likely still be No 1.

Penney revealed how Darlington’s credit crunch has also affected the Arena playing surface.

“The groundsman can’t put any fertiliser or seeds in the pitch because we haven’t got any money to buy any fertiliser or seeds,” explained the exasperated manager. “We are waiting for the grass to grow.

“At this time last year the pitch had been re-seeded, it was looking great and ready for the play-offs. But it isn’t going to get any better so we’re just going to have to cope with it as best we can.”

Darlington’s costcutting has extended to producing a single programme to cover their remaining home games.

Despite the pitch, both sides tried to play good football with Quakers, particularly before the break when they were on top, regularly breaking through the Morecambe defence.

Rob Purdie, combining with Jason Kennedy, enjoyed the freedom of the right wing as the stand-in skipper put in another good showing.

He is wearing the captain’s armband in place of Steve Foster, who has been ruled out for the season as he undergoes a hernia operation tomorrow.

Purdie went close to scoring in the first half with a powerful low shot that Roche saved with his legs, and after the break the former Hereford captain was involved in the build- up to an Abbott blast at goal that Roche did well to save.

The keeper’s stop helped ensure Morecambe kept a third consecutive clean sheet on their travels, although Abbott gave the Shrimps a let-off with a miss in injury time.

Sammy McIlroy’s side are comfortably in mid-table, coasting towards the end of the season with one eye on May 2.

They will have no play-off matches getting in the way of holiday plans, and Darlington are rapidly heading towards the same scenario.

They are 12th and remain seven points off seventh, although there remains a glimmer of hope.

That’s because of the top teams’ uncanny knack of losing to the division’s lesser lights. Only one of the top 11 won on Saturday.

But even before the weekend Quakers were up against it and Penney admitted: “It’s a massive task for us now.

“But we will try to win every game as we always do – you could see that here in the players’ attitude and effort – and that’s all we can do now.

“We’ll keep turning up for work, keep the players bright and busy, get them ready for the games we’ve got left.

“We’ve got six to go now, we’ll keep going until May 2 and then we can go on holiday and see where we are when we get back.”