DARLINGTON manager Alun Armstrong was far from happy with his defence after his side's six-game winning away run came to an end with a 3-1 defeat at Boston.

Quakers have produced some excellent away performances this season at Scarborough, Gloucester and Kidderminster, but the high workrate, solid defending and flair were missing from this performance against a team threatened with relegation.

Nevertheless, Darlington remain in third place in the table, and with Fylde starting to sneak away at the top, they need to keep a firm grip on that placing to ensure a home game in the play-offs at the end of the season.

“Boston deserved their win, they worked harder than us in the first half,” said Armstrong. "But you can’t give away goals like we did. We’ve done that all season, but the penny isn’t dropping and things will have to change. We can’t keep doing that, otherwise we’ll keep falling away.

“You can’t defend the way we did for the first one, we didn’t deal with the ball into the box. I thought it was a free-kick our way beforehand though. We didn’t win any first headers – their centre-forward, Jordan Burrow, had his best game for a long time, it was easy for him. He bullied our two back lads. I’m sick and tired of saying the same things. What we said at half-time to the players went in one ear and out the other. To concede from two set-plays was really poor.

“This has been a massive bugbear all season. We’ve worked on things, we’ve changed personnel to put things right, but it doesn’t legislate for going to head the ball. That’s what it boiled down to, not attacking the ball aggressively enough or being strong enough to get the centre-forward out of the way."

Boston nearly took the lead early in the game when Quakers failed to clear a ball into their box, and Billy Chadwick had a shot blocked on the six-yard line, then Jordan Burrow headed a right-wing cross into Tommy Taylor’s hands.

Quakers replied with a left foot effort by Jacob Hazel that he dragged past the post, but then they had cause to be annoyed about the award of a free-kick in the 18th minute.

The referee ruled that Jassem Sukar fouled Burrow when the offence seemed to be the other way round, and when Chadwick’s free-kick went into the Darlington box, the defence failed to clear and Adriano Moke was adjudged to have tripped Burrow. Zak Goodson scored from the spot.

It was nearly 2-0 on 33 minutes, when Quakers again failed to deal with a corner, and when the ball broke for Zak Mills a few yards out, he seemed a certain scorer, but somehow Kaine Felix, who was covering the post, got the ball off the line.

Quakers missed a good chance to equalise just on half-time when Moke found Jack Lambert breaking into the box, but just like Hazel before him, Lambert pulled his effort wide of the right-hand post.

Quakers started the second half in a determined manner, but Boston went 2-0 up on 49 minutes when Chadwick floated a corner to the far post where Luke Shiel had a free header blocked by Nathan Newall, but the Boston defender recovered quickly to force the ball into the roof of the net.

Four minutes later it was 3-0, when Quakers carelessly lost possession as they were breaking, and Mills crossed from the right into the middle where Taylor could only palm his low cross into the path of Burrow, who tucked the ball away.

Boston were happy to defend in depth, but Quakers broke through on 80 minutes when Felix got round the defence and set up Ben Liddle to drive home.

They nearly pulled another back when Felix headed into the keeper’s hands, but Boston’s defending was determined enough to see them through.