Darlington 4 Bath City 1

WHEN Darlington were last in the Conference they had a great chance of progressing to the FA Trophy final, and 21 years on a similar opportunity awaits after they progressed to the third round.

When the draw is made today it will feature only six Blue Square Bet Premier teams with Quakers among them after overcoming Bath City 4-1 on Saturday thanks mainly to a strong second half showing.

A second goal inside five days from Paul Arnison, two from Liam Hatch and one by Aman Verma put Quakers into the last 16 of the nonleague competition.

It may not feature prominently in the football calendar, but Darlington are suddenly ranked as one of the favourites to reach Wembley, as they were in 1989-90.

Back then lowly Leek Town, from two divisions below, stunned Brian Little’s team in the quarter-finals.

But after a spate of shocks in this season’s competition, Luton and Mansfield are now the only sides left in the competition that are ranked above Mark Cooper’s team, and the boss wants a generous draw today while supporters hope the club can atone for the missed opportunity of two decades ago.

Cooper said: “If we could get a home tie against a team not in our division, or a team we feel we could get through against, then that’s what we want.

“We’re three rounds from Wembley now and it starts to get exciting. It would be fantastic to take this club to Wembley.”

Saturday’s tie – one that Darlington were favourites for – was hardly a given as Bath came into the game having recently drawn with Luton and are only three places behind Quakers.

That was evident during a tame but well-matched first half in which Bath nullified Darlington by using the same midfield diamond formation.

Incidents were hard to come by, which probably suited young Blyth-born Quakers defender Dan Burn, who enjoyed an impressive outing as he stood in for the cup-tied Adam Quinn.

The gangly centre-back, who made four appearances last season, performed admirably by showing composure on the ball and strength in his challenges. The 18-yearold had the first shot on target, letting one fly rather optimistically from 35 yards.

Darlington should have been awarded a penalty when debutant loan striker Nathan Modest was pulled back in the area by defender Danny Webb.

Perhaps he paid the price for not going to ground because, somehow, referee Russell Fletcher played on.

Modest got a shot in, but the 19-year-old, who has joined for the rest of the season from Sheffield Wednesday, was stunned.

“He pulled me back,” he protested. “Football is supposed to be a fair game so when you’ve got an opportunity to score and you’re pulled back and the referee doesn’t give it, what’s the point in playing football?

“I tried to carry on. If I had gone to ground and he didn’t give the penalty I might have got booked. So you play on and be honest and try to score, but he still didn’t give it.”

Fletcher had Arnison to thank for taking him out of the spotlight when the rightback hammered home the opening goal in first-half injury time.

Hanging around the edge of the penalty area, he received Aaron Brown’s left-wing cross before taking the ball past a defender and arrowing a shot across the keeper.

Darlington, having changed to a 4-3-3 formation, set the tone early in the second period when, as Bath struggled to defend a corner, Hatch made it 2-0 by firing home from close-range after his first shot had rebounded off the keeper.

However, Quakers have developed a nasty habit of conceding goals when in the lead, while Bath are the team that, back in September, Darlington managed to draw 2-2 against despite leading 2-0 after 90 minutes. So nobody could say they were surprised when, despite Darlington’s defence having previously appeared solid, Bath’s Adam Connolly was allowed to dribble into the penalty area and tuck the ball past Sam Russell.

That had been the first shot Russell had faced, and Cooper said: “It’s not acceptable so I had a go at them at the end of the game.

“As well as we did to grind out a 4-1 win, and no disrespect to Bath, if you’re playing Crawley or Luton and give those kinds of goals away you won’t win the game.

“The goals we’ve been conceding, they’re identical.

We’ve done sessions on it this week but we weren’t tight enough. If I was Sam Russell and people kept costing me clean sheets I’d be wanting to strangle them.”

However, this time around there was to be no collapse with Verma and Hatch adding to the scoreline.

Verma received Curtis Main’s flick before squeezing a low shot between keeper Carl Pentney and the post before Hatch hammered home when Brown’s free-kick was not cleared.

■ The next round of the FA Trophy is on February 5, meaning Quakers’ trip to Newport must be rearranged.

Match facts

Goals:

1-0: Arnison (45, arrowed a shot across the keeper from inside the penalty area)

2-0: Hatch, (47, close-range volley after first attempt was saved by the keeper)

2-1: Connolly (57, waltzed past some weak challenges before tucking in from 12 yards)

3-1: Verma (63, beat the keeper at his near post after Main had flicked the ball on)

4-1: Hatch (75, unmarked close to goal, the striker fired home a loose ball following a free-kick)

Bookings: None

Referee: Russell Fletcher (Melbourne, Derbyshire) – Did not get much wrong aside from failing to award a first-half penalty for a clear foul on Modest 6

Attendance: 926

Entertainment: ✰✰✰

DARLINGTON (4-3-1-2):

6 Russell: Had little to do other than come for the occasional cross which he managed with ease;

8 Arnison: The marauding right-back made it two goals in two games with another impressive strike

7 Miller: Made some important interceptions and assisted Burn when required

8 BURN: Demonstrated he can be an option to call on rather than use Hatch in defence

8 Brown: He is one of the team’s unsung heroes but had a hand in three goals;

7 Main: Few sights of goal but made a nuisance of himself when pushed into a three-man attack

7 Chandler: Well-suited to his midfield holding role where he makes vital tackles

7 Verma: Did not feature as prominently as he sometimes does, but still bagged his third goal for the club

7 G Smith: Does what he does best, which is to keep it simple and move the ball on to a team-mate;

8 Hatch: Atoned for a disappointing display in midweek, by his standards, with a two-goal blast

6 Modest: The loan striker showed he has pace to burn, an attribute that caused Bath problems

Subs (not used): Austin, P Gray, J Gray, Moore, Barnes

BATH CITY (4-4-1-1):

Pentney 4; Rollo 5 (Murray 52, 5), Jones 5, Webb 5, Riddick 5; Simpson, Harris 5 (Jeanne 73), Canham 6, Jombati 6; CONNOLLY 7, Mohammed 6.

Subs (not used): Phillips, Hart, Robinson

MAN OF THE MATCH

DAN Burn – only the teenager’s third start but you would not know it.

Looked calm and composed.