With a run of challenging fixtures to come this month, Darlington may have timed their good form to perfection.

Saturday’s one-sided 4-0 win at Scarborough Athletic was a demonstration of how strong a team they can be when they are in the mood and right now they are in top gear.

The first round tie was the team’s ninth successive win in league and cup, teeing up nicely Wednesday’s encounter at Heritage Park with Spennymoor Town, who are in good form themselves.

“It’s up there with the best performances we’ve had this season. It’s important to keep the standards up now,” said manager Martin Gray. “It was a really strong performance by us from start to finish.”

Despite making four changes to the starting XI, Darlington continued the form they have shown of late; in control, rarely in danger of conceding and the only complaint being a familiar one - their ability to waste so many scoring chances.

“We should’ve scored more goals if we’re being honest,” admitted Gray. “Adam Mitchell had three great chances, Liam Hatch had an open goal after the ball came back off the post, Graeme Armstrong had an overhead kick close to the goal-line. Plus, the delivery of our set-pieces in the first half were good quality again.

“We’ve got momentum and another clean sheet. It’s important to keep that mentality, but there’s no point getting carried away, we’ve just won another game. But it was an important win against a strong team that have been in good form.”

Scarborough have the best home record in the division, winning seven of their eight fixtures, which are played at Bridlington’s Queensgate ground, yet they were out-muscled and out of depth on Saturday.

With the Spennymoor game in mind, Terry Galbraith, David Dowson and Hatch came in for the rested Tom Portas, Amar Purewal and Graeme Armstrong.

Gray also gave a game to reserve goalkeeper Mark Bell, but he might as well have handed the gloves to kitman Andrew Thompson such was the dominance of Darlington’s defence, who have now kept five clean sheets in a row.

Centre-back pairing Alan White and Chris Hunter were again unbeatable, while the continuing resurgence of Stephen Thompson was pleasing to the hundreds of Quakers supporters who made the two-hour trip to the coast.

He was involved in three of the goals, the first coming on four minutes, playing in Dowson on the left and his cross was side-footed home by Hatch.

After a Thompson shot was deflected, Seadogs defender Ben Middleton blocked a goal-bound Dowson shot, and the striker was then clipped in the area by Middleton. A clear penalty, yet despite having a clear view referee Steve Wade waved play on.

It was an appalling decision and twice more he denied Darlington penalties, on each occasion when Leon Scott was tripped, while he also blind to Scarborough’s Gary Bradshaw being felled in the 18-yard box.

Gray said: “Even though we won 4-0, the penalty decision does matter because it would’ve made it 2-0 early in the game, if we’d scored it.

“We had three strong penalty calls, especially the one on Dowson. It was a nailed on penalty. Having said that, they could have similar complaints about one before half-time. It was a tough for the referee, he found it hard for a 20 minute spell.”

Thompson smashed home his third goal of the season within 60 seconds of the restart. Dowson held up the ball, laid it off to Hatch who played it sideways for Thompson to smash home the kind of goal that’s become his trademark over the past two seasons.

With a place in this morning’s draw in sight, midway through the second half Gray replaced Dowson and Hatch with Purewal and Armstrong and immediately the substitutes were involved in Darlington’s third goal.

Thompson played in Armstrong whose shot was parried to Purewal who passed into the net his tenth goal of the season.

Armstrong does not want to be left behind in the scoring stakes, and he added his ninth of the campaign a minute from time, delicately back-heeling the ball home after Mitchell’s right-wing cross.

To cap off a fine day, Darlington stayed top of the table because second-placed Salford City were thrashed 6-0 in the league at Kendal Town. They had two players sent off, including the goalkeeper and had no reserve on the bench.

A win on Wednesday would strengthen Quakers position on top. Gray said: “It gives me something to think about for Wednesday when lads get a chance and play as well as that. Galbraith and Scott in midfield were so strong.

“When lads come into the team they’ve got to step up and everyone did today.

“We approached the game in the right way. We’ve got the Doodson Cup coming soon against Whitby and I’ve got little interest in it to be honest. The league matters more than anything, but the Trophy is important because the club has some history with it so we want to progress as far as we can.”

*The next round will take place on November 15, so the league game at Northwich Victoria will be rearranged.

Goals: Hatch (4, 0-1), Thompson (46, 0-2), Purewal (67, 0-3), Armstrong (89, 0-4)

Bookings: Scott (29, dissent); Burton (34, handball)

Referee: Steve Wade 4

Attendance: 715

Entertainment: ****

Scarborough Athletic (4-4-2): WHITE 6; Robson 5, Middleton 5, Burton 4, Ridley 5 (Bennett 63, 5); Williams 5 (Evans 56, 5), Davidson 5 (Bolder 56, 5), Beadle 6, Ghaichem 5; Bradshaw 5, Blott 5. Subs (not used): Hughes, Foot

Darlington (4-4-2): Bell 6; Brown 7, White 8, Hunter 8, Watson 7; A Mitchell 7, Scott 7, Galbraith 7, THOMPSON 8 (Cocks 70, 6); Dowson 7 (Purewal 66, 7), Hatch 7 (Armstrong 66, 7). Subs (not used): Jameson (gk), Portas

Man of the match

STEPHEN Thompson – Showing signs of returning to his best